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 both 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 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.
Or 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 1,000 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 really

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 harm, the political one,
was directed by the Arab agency.

The Arab agency was, well,
I will give you an example.

Those who arrived
in Tel Aviv on April 7th,

were in school learning modern Hebrew
twenty days after arriving,

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

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

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

In any case, where I mentally find...
- Ah, yes.

...this small amount of protection.
However, 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.

In regard to this,
I would also read an excerpt

from the letters
that may have been donated to the archive,

diaries in which Hector specifies
what he was feeling shortly after the time

at which he abandoned Italy.

We will read from this excerpt:
"When I left Italy four months ago,

"feeling more disgusted by the burden
of having to leave the country

"than for the imminent danger,
many of my colleagues

"and friends were quick
to express to me their discontent

"about what was happening.

"Through their conversations,
I felt they knew what sympathy meant

"and they only ended up withdrawing me.

"They were whispered in room conversations
solely because they knew me

"and thought highly of me.

"For many, being an example against
the persecution of Jews not being born

"in Italy, could also be considered fair
because it is understood that they came

"to the country to make a fortune
by going behind other's backs.

"They had some skilled political views.

"The fascist government's right
to persecute people that it had let into

"the country was generally recognized."

Okay, so Hector felt betrayed by Italy?

Without a doubt.

As I was saying prior,
also because my father was from Trieste.

From his father, my grandfather,
he had also received an irredentist

and nationalist education.

Trieste...
- Of course.

...had always been divided
between people from Trieste

instead of irredentists,
those who love Italy, Italian culture,

Italian language,
like my grandfather and the Slovenians.

He had received this education,
and so he was an irredentist nationalist.

Additionally, he was a genius official,
and so he felt like an Italian.

He loved Italy
and he felt betrayed by this terrible law.

In addition, in Hector's letters,
in this text, it also highlights

a responsibility
by the Italian people themselves

for that which is happening.

He writes:
"The political maturity

"of the Italian people
is apparently that of government rule

"that it has and that it deserves."

There is a precise responsibility
by the people.

Well, the problem of the Italian people...
(Laughter)

is living, yes, is like saying...

living today like yesterday.

In other words,
the lack of personal responsibility

and...not this...

in this way...y..., accepting anything,
a leader or a guide,

that which has
an...an...uglier appearance, if you will.

And that...Trieste,
not coincidentally Mussolini

and September 18, 1938,
where they were

at the Unity of Italy Square
to present the Racial Laws

not only because of
the nationalism that was there,

but because Trieste was
a very multiethnic, multicultural city.

There were more than two centuries
in which ethnic groups were diverse.

They coexisted.

But at the very moment
in which Mussolini was harsh towards Jews,

who, I repeat, were profound Italians
and felt as such, and had also fought

for Italy during the First World War,
at the point, everyone was inclined

to accept the rule of fascism.

We return to Hector and Adelina,
who, because of their decisions,

leave the Second World War behind,
in which the persecution of Jews

and the holocaust is about to start.

They leave behind the errors of war,
however, like I said, they face a life

that is not easy.

Like we said,
Adelina was a lawyer with a great career.

She finds herself having
to start her work up again.

Yes, because the main difficulty was
a work shortage.

There was an excess of workers
(Laughter)

from Tel Aviv.

And then, there were few jobs
or they were completely insecure.

Another big problem was
a housing shortage.

So much so that my parents were forced
to live with a family in an apartment,

with a kind of Polish family.

And so the difficulty was, above all,
the work shortage.

Also because the two small bags
of two thousand stars were not

to be touched at all.
My father was not flexible.

And so then my mom, in other words,
my mom, as long as my father remained

in Tel Aviv until August 23, 1944,
when he then went to work

at the British oil refinery... yes...
No, he also had my mom

because then he had had my sister first
and then I was born in 1942.

So then when my father left,
he felt the obligation to work

to support the family
also because he liked the idea

of having money...
(Laughter)

to freely spend.

As mentioned, your mother was free...
- Yes, free.

in Palestine.
- Yes.

Your father, on the other hand,
had to move abroad to Persia

because meanwhile he found work
with an oil company.

So two lovers who find themselves
far apart in a foreign land,

and the only point of contact
between these two people becomes

the writing, the letters
that will then become so important

for documentation, for their memories.
- Yes.

In fact, if my father accepts
this two year contract

with this Iranian company,
from Abadan and in Persia,

he would do his work
as an industrial chemist

in this precise military zone.

He certainly separated from,
he left his wife, his children,

in Tel Aviv.
Then, although very tired,

every evening my mom wrote
and reported what had happened

during her workday,
because she had found work

with a company that was part
of the Tel Aviv pharmaceutical industry.

After then being fired,
she went into a...into a house to iron...

So, she could do anything.
And so she reported with great ability,

descriptive, careful about everything
that went on during the day.

Rather, my father sometimes wrote letters
with in depth description.

He explained to her a bit about his duty,
weather problems because it was very hot,

relationships with the British,
that local population that was

in truly devastating conditions.
Okay so they were letters that,

among other things... If you permit me...
- Sure.

a digression... Things one absolutely knew
but I didn't even know

the letters existed.

Then perhaps we can also elaborate
on how they were found.

Then also about how the decision
to publish them came about.

Let's go back.
We had said that while Hector

and Adelina were in Palestine,
their children were born.

Yes, my sister...
- You were born

and your sister Ana was born.

It is fitting that the future
of these two children is often focused

on in these letters that Hector
and Adelina exchange.

I would like to read another
particularly significant passage

that is again written by Hector
in Abadan in February 23, 1945:

"If on one hand, the war tends
to be nearing its end, on the other,

"for us, the situation in Palestine
is taking a favorable turn.

"These days, I am overthinking
and continuously thinking

"about the problem and worried,
not so much about our personal future,

"but the future of our children.
I feel irresistibly carried towards

"a solution that,
although never once explored,

"today seems inevitable to me.
Perhaps in a year's time we will find

"the need to have to return to Italy.
Then they will return

"to being one hundred percent Italians."

Probably if your father could have chosen,
he would have never...ah...wanted

to return to Italy.

Yes, I would have wanted to also.
Rather no, because of having been betrayed

by Italy, my father deeply desired
to return to Italy.

Apart from the experience in Abadan,
also because life in Palestine was truly

very hard, very difficult because of
the work problem, the problem

of the...of the...the lack of apartments.
However, we can't forget

that the attention, the attention
from the Palestinian Arabs and the British

made life particularly difficult.

If we could return back in time...
- Yes.

In September 1940, Tel Aviv was bombed
by Italian planes, no...

Yes.
- They bombed Tel Aviv and it seems

like there were one hundred
and fifty two deaths.

So life was very hard.
Another digression...uh... In other words,

one of the big problems was also food.

For example, myself sister and I went
to the gan, which was like kindergarten.

To help you understand, at lunch they used
to give us half an egg to eat.

On the other hand,
while you all faced this situation,

the hope of returning
to Italy continuously remained.

And how did Adelina live
with this hope of returning?

I would read...
- Yes.

...another passage that is significant:
"I won't ever identify why

"that step is done.
Here I feel undoubtedly hired

"by instinct and by force of tradition.
I won't ever identify not only

"out of obedience, but because more than
anything else, I worry about doing

"everything possible
for the future of our children."

It's like saying,
she also committed herself

to doing her part.
There was a sense of pride

to return to Italy, that country
that could then guarantee a future

for you children.

Here then there is a...
(Laughter)

There are many letters.
In any case, when my father says

that they will become
one hundred percent Italians,

he also proposes to my mom
the idea of converting to Catholicism,

because we were Jews.
- Of course.

Then while the Finzi family
of Trieste were almost totally similar...

In other words,
they went to the temple twice a year.

On the contrary, my mom was from
a much more conventional family.

They came from the Parrdoc family,
which was a very important family.

Parrdoc was Prado then.
They came from Spain after the expulsion.

So my father proposes this idea
of converting to Catholicism

so that his children will become
complete Italians.