Non­fic­tion

Jews in South­ern Tus­cany dur­ing the Holo­caust: Ambigu­ous Refuge

  • From the Publisher
September 1, 2020

The province of Gros­se­to in south­ern Tus­cany shows two extremes in the treat­ment of Ital­ian and for­eign Jews dur­ing the Holo­caust. The Jews of Pit­igliano, a four-hun­dred-year-old com­mu­ni­ty, were hid­den for almost a year by sym­pa­thet­ic farm­ers. All sur­vived the Fas­cist hunt for Jews. In the west, near Gros­se­to, almost a hun­dred Ital­ian and for­eign Jews were impris­oned in 1943 – 44 in the bish­op’s sem­i­nary, which he rent­ed to the Fas­cists for that pur­pose. About half of them, who had thought the bish­op would pro­tect them, were deport­ed with his knowl­edge to Auschwitz. Based on inter­views, this book shows how the Holo­caust reached deep into this provin­cial cor­ner of Italy under Ital­ian Fas­cist con­trol, and is proof that not all Ital­ians were bra­va gente’ resist­ing the Ger­mans, in fact there were many collaborators.

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