Copia Autore © Gangemi Editore Spa Roma Viaggi Nella 4 Series of the Archivio Di Stato Di Roma Director Luigi Londei

ARCHIVIO DI STATO DI ROMA viaggi nella 4 The Racial Laws and the Jewish Community of Rome 1938-1945

Editor Manola Ida Venzo and Bice Migliau

copia autore © Gangemi editore spa Roma viaggi nella 4 Series of the Archivio di Stato di Roma Director Luigi Londei

Editorial Staff Daniela Sinisi, Maria Grazia Branchetti

Graphics Simonetta Rossi

Cover Luisa Salvatori

Administrative Office Rossana Dominici

Photographs Emilio Tedeschi

copia autore © Gangemi editore spa Roma copia autore © Gangemi editore spa Roma ARCHIVIO DI STATO DI ROMA

Viaggi nella memoria Series of the Archivio di Stato di Roma

Director Other publications Luigi Londei I luoghi della Sapienza by M.G. Branchetti (2000 – rist. 2002) Editorial Staff Palazzo Madama: dalla famiglia Medici al Senato Daniela Sinisi, Maria Grazia Branchetti by C. Ficola, E. Graziani, M. Pieretti, M.A. Quesada (2001) Graphics Vivere in piazza nella Roma dei papi by Simonetta Rossi C. Genovese, D. Sinfisi (2002)

Photographs Emilio Tedeschi

© All rights reserved Gangemi Editore spa Piazza San Pantaleo 4, Roma www.gangemieditore.it No part of this publication may be stored in a retrieval system or reproduced in any form or by any means, including photocopying, without the necessary permission.

ISBN 978-88-492-1222-8

Frontcopia cover: from autore “La difesa della © razza”, Gangemi November 1938 editore spa Roma viaggi nella

The Racial Laws and the Jewish Community of Rome 1938-1945

Editor Manola Ida Venzo and Bice Migliau

Essays Silvia Haia Antonucci, Claudio Procaccia, Luca Saletti, Giancarlo Spizzichino

copia autore © Gangemi editore spa Roma 9

Table of contents

Fascism and the Racial Laws 10 Manola Ida Venzo

A Story of Betrayal 24 Luca Saletti

The Jewish Schools of Rome in 1938 26 Bice Migliau

The Roman Jews from the Emancipation to the Racial Laws. 29 Economic and Social Aspects Claudio Procaccia

Daily Life during the Racial Laws and the Nazi Occupation: Testimonies 33 Silvia Haia Antonucci and Giancarlo Spizzichino

War, Nazi Occupation and Deportation in Rome 37 Silvia Haia Antonucci

Timeline (1938-1945) 41

A Look at the Documents 42 Manola Ida Venzo

Basic Bibliography 46

copia autore © Gangemi editore spa Roma 37

War, Nazi Occupation and Deportation in Rome Silvia Haia Antonucci

When the racial laws were passed in 1938, some Jews saw the signs of danger in the situation of those years and, depending on means and resources, they emigrated, chiefly to the United States, South America, Switzerland and Eretz Yisrael, the Land of Israel. But most Roman Jews stayed, convinced that the greater danger would be avoided in the city of the Popes. That belief proved to be wrong and in 1993 1939 there were frequent threats to Jews, especially in the area of the Great Synagogue. After Italy entered the war on June 4, 1940, living conditions worsened, despite the best efforts of the Jewish community to endure the deprivations of the times. In 1941 Roman Jews were further humiliated when subjected toby an injunction for to per- form forced labor on the banks of the Tiber River. With the fall of Fascism and the

Note from Ezio Spizzichino, thrown from the Letter from the Righi and Richetti families train that left from Carpi for Auschwitz, May who found the note from Ezio Spizzichino 16, 1944. Private archives and send it to Friar Pietro, May 17, 1944. copia autore © GangemiPrivate archives editore spa Roma 38 Viaggi nella memoria

armistice of September 8, 1943, the Nazis occu- pied Italy, the Republic of Salò was established and roundups and deportation to the Nazi concentration camps commenced throughout Italy. At the time, Italy’s Jewish Community numbered 35,000 people, including foreign- ers, concentrated main- ly in the central and northern areas of the country. The task of the SS was unquestionably facili- tated by Mussolini’s dic- tatorship: the Chief of Police of every city pos- sessed had lists of the names of Italian and foreign Jews and addresses dating back to the special census of conducted during the Certificate of membership in the Jewish race presented by summer of 1938 and Alceste Della Seta, February 16, 1939. Jewish Cultural Center, Rome regularly updated with data from the “Notification of Membership in the Jewish Race”. Informers were also frequent. The people arrested in Rome were taken to the Regina Coeli prison or to Via Tasso where the Gestapo Headquarters were located. Today, the building infamous for the torture inflicted there, is a museum. At the end of September 1943, the Nazis demanded that the Jewish community hand over 50 kilos of gold. Strangely enough, meeting the request created a false sense of tranquility, shattered by the roundup of October 16, 1943. In the days that followed, the SS ransacked the Jewish Community offices, carrying the registers, most of the archives and documents, and confiscating over two million lire of the time. The harassment was stepped up after September 30 and the Community Library – one of the largest in Europe – and the Library of the Italian Rabbinical College were plundered and the Nazis appropriated numerous rare, extremely valuable antique volumes. Some Jews found refuge in monasteries and parish churches. Testimony of sur- vivors shows that while some priests and nuns risked their lives to hide Jews, other demandedcopia compensation autore or © pressured Gangemi the Jews to convert.editore Other Jewsspa were Roma saved The Racial Laws and the Jewish Community of Rome – 1938-1945 39

with the help of every- day citizens, including apartment building concierges, servants and farmers who risked their lives by hiding Jews in dwellings, cel- lars, attics and cottages in the countryside. Living conditions were harsh: there is testimony of people who slept on kitchen tables or children who were put to sleep in drawers. Some Jews found safe- ty in hospitals. At the Fratebenefratelli Hospital, physicians actually invented a new illness for Jews; they called it “K” on the charts, referring to Marshall Kesserling, commander of the occupying forces of central and southern Italy. On March 24, 1944, following a partisan attack on the Nazi offices on Via Rasella, 335 people including 75 Jews were killed at the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine. Some Jews joined the partisans, fighting chiefly in the Castelli Romani villages to the south of Rome (Albano and Frascati). They included Marco Moscati, who was killed Betrayal to the German command, informing on Benedetto at the Fosse Ardeatine, Veneziano, Jew from Rome, who “travels up and down Italy, Pino Levi Cavaglione scheming and plotting”. Signed, “A Friend of Germany’s”. from Genoa who November 7, 1943 describedcopia the autore partisan Jewish© Gangemi Cultural Center, Rome editore spa Roma 40 Viaggi nella memoria

struggle in Rome in his book Guerriglia nei castelli romani (Guerrilla Warfare in the Castelli Romani), Eugenio and Sylvia Elfer, Leone Ginzburg, Eugeio Colorni, Enzo Sereni – ideologue and pioneer of the Zionist Socialist movement who left his kibbutz in Israel to collaborate with the allies for the liberation of Italy. Sereni parachuted behind the Gothic line on May 15, 1944; he was captured by the Germans and killed in Dachau.

Some police commissioners invite apartment concierges to “keep their eyes on citizens of Jewish race” who could send “light signals to enemy planes during night time attacks”, June 25, 1940. ASCER, folder n. 110, copia autore © Gangemi editoreRome spa Roma 1222-8 M. Venzo - op_leggi_razziali COVER_cope_legg_razziali 01/04/15 14:36 Pagina 1

ARCHIVIO DI STATO DI ROMA

viaggi nella The Racial Laws and the Jewish Community of Rome – 1938-1945 4

The years between 1938 and 1943 witnessed the approval of a massive, detailed set of laws discriminating against the Jews. The Racial Laws While there were indeed moments of anti-Semitism in Italy after unification – fed primarily by some Catholic groups – the leitmotifs so dear to anti-Jewish propaganda only began to and the Jewish appear widely in the Italian press with the rise of Fascism. In 1933, Telesio Interlandi, writing for Il Tevere and Roberto Community of Rome Farinacci for Il regime fascista, triggered a furious press campaign against the Jews. The campaign quickly spread to the other Fascist papers. 1938-1945

Editor Manola Ida Venzo and Bice Migliau viaggi nella 4 Series of the Archivio di Stato di Roma Director Luigi Londei

Editorial Staff Daniela Sinisi, Maria Grazia Branchetti

Graphics Simonetta Rossi

Cover Luisa Salvatori

Administrative Office Rossana Dominici

Photographs Emilio Tedeschi

Front cover: from “La difesa della razza”, November 1938 Back cover: Telegram of the Minister of the Interior who invites the Prefects to exacerbate the t 10,00 copia autoreracial policy © against Gangemi the Jews, 1941. ASR, editore Prefettura, Gabinetto, spa folder Roma n. 1515 www.gangemieditore.it The years between 1938 and 1943 witnessed the approval of a massive, detailed set of laws discriminating against the Jews. While there were indeed moments of anti-Semitism in Italy after unification – fed primarily by some Catholic groups – the leitmotifs so dear to anti-Jewish propaganda only began to appear widely in the Italian press with the rise of Fascism. In 1933, Telesio Interlandi, writing for Il Tevere and Roberto Farinacci for Il regime fascista, triggered a furious press campaign against the Jews. The campaign quickly spread to the other Fascist papers.