In fuga dalla Shoah. La storia della famiglia Finzi - Gente di qui

People from Here

Welcome to People from Here.

What we want to tell you today
is the story of two young people,

of two young people
with high hopes.

There is Adelina,
a brilliant lawyer who works

at a prestigious legal firm in Milan.

Then there is Hector,
an industrial chemist.

The future can only
smile at Adelina and Hector.

Actually,
their future will be more turbulent

than they could have ever imagined.

The fact is,
in 1938 Hector and Adelina are Jewish.

On September 18th,
in the town of Trieste,

Benito Mussolini announced Racial Laws
for the first time,

for the defense of the race.

The world of those two young people
suddenly collapses under their feet.

We will tell this story
of Hector and Adelina

and about the eve of the day.

We will tell it with the son
of Hector and Adelina, Daniele Finzi,

who in 2011, decided to donate
his parents letters and documents

to The Archives of Pieve Santo Stefano.

Shortly we will also discuss
why this choice was made.

I would like to start precisely
with September 1938,

with Mussolini's announcement
of the laws for the defense of the race.

Hector and Adelina immediately started
to understand that there was no future

for them in that country.
To leave their country was

a difficult decision,
but one that will save their lives.

Yes, my father Hector Finzi had
very deep historical knowledge.

Also because he knew German very well.

He had two aunts, aunt Genie
and aunt Lazagudita Gentiluomo,

who lived in Vienna.

He had followed all
the Nazi antisemitism up to March 1938.

So when the race manifesto was
published in July 1938,

he didn't expect it.

He knew what our limits were
and he also hoped

that Italy was perhaps
a little different from Germany.

And my father, more than my mother,
made quick and immediate decisions.

He was also very intuitive.
He had known my mom

only a few month in 1938.
It was love at first sight

and precisely because of
the race manifesto, the Racial Laws,

they decided to get married.
They were married in Milan

on December 1, 1938.

In 1938. We arrive in 1939.
- Yes.

A manifest date for many.
- Yes.

Very unjust, but there is a turning point.
- There is a turning point.

Hector and Adelina decide to leave.
Rather how do they depart?

Because, in a way,
they leave well informed.

Yes and no.
The problem is immediate

and that of money.

Because the White Paper
of the British, a policy

from maybe February or March of 1939,
allowed a total of 75,000 Jews

to enter Palestine for five years.
But to qualify, every person needed

to have one thousand stars.

Like we had said, they had chosen.
The goal was Palestine.

The choice was not a coincidence,
because my father had also thought

of Latin America.
But the idea of going

to Palestine was because it was nearby.
He also hoped his parents could join him.

In any case, the issue
of money was truly a huge problem,

because they didn't have money.
So, thanks to the lawyer Gianni Morandi,

who was the owner
of the firm where my mom worked,

they went to Zurich for their honeymoon.
Then they went to Lugano

to gather clients for the lawyer
to put towards this large sum.

I still remember two leather bags
with thousands of stars inside.

They were gold stars.

Okay, at this point, they reach Palestine.
The State of Israel still didn't exist.

There wasn't any money to protect them.
Therefore, they had to start from scratch?

Yes, and so, they started all over again
from January to April 1, 1939.

They arrived in Jaffa on April 6, 1939.

Yes, because by 1922
the British controlled Palestine.

There were Palestinian Arabs.
The Jewish Palestinians were organized

by the Yishuv, who were more concerned
with the kibbutz and wanted

to dedicate themselves
to agriculture, etc.

But the true damage, the political one,
was directly from the Arab agency.

I will give you an example.
Twenty days after those who arrived

in Tel Aviv on April 7th,
they were in school learning modern Hebrew

because there were various Jews coming
from every part of Europe in Tel Aviv.

And so, it was necessary
to learn this common language.

Therefore, there was some organization,
but there were a lot of problems.

Nevertheless, where I mentally find...
- Ah, yes.

...this small amount of protection.
In any case, they had to start...

They had to restart.
- ...from scratch.

On the other hand, however,
there were also a lot of comforts

that were left behind by the fact
of having to abandon...

- Yes.
...Italy.

Having to leave Italy was strenuous.
- Yes.

Regarding this, I would also read an excerpt
from the letters that may have been

donated to the archive,
diaries from which Hector specifically

describes what he is feeling at the time
in which he recently abandons Italy.