Customer Reviews

It Happened in Italy: Untold Stories of How the People of Italy Defied the Horrors of the Holocaust

5 star:		(28)
4 star:		(42)
3 star:		(32)
2 star:		(14)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

This is not your typical book on the Holocaust - this one turned out to be heartwarming, rather than heartbreaking. It was not quite what I was expecting though. While it did relay the "untold stories of how the people of Italy defied the horrors of the holocaust" as the title states, the majority of the book actually dealt with the discovery of these stories and the subsequent trips back to Italy for the survivors, and the special friendships that were subsequently formed. There are actually only a handful of the untold stories, and most of them sound identical. The reason for that, however, is because of what even the survivors say - "nothing really happened to us there". Basically, the author discovers that there was an internment camp for Jews in Campagna, the small town that her family is from. After a series of sheer luck incidents, she discovers that these camps were all over Italy, and that the survivors of them were ready to talk about them. The interesting thing, is that barely anyone knows that these camps existed - including the current residents of these Italian towns. These camps were not death camps like Auschwitz, in fact, they were quite opposite. Technically yes, the Jews were in internment camps, but they were pretty much free to do as they pleased so long as they adhered to a few basic rules, such as obey curfew, and check in with the police everyday. Families were kept together, not torn apart. Weddings took place, children were born, they went to school, made friends with the locals, and were even allowed to be buried in a special section of the cemetery that had been requested by the Jews. In fact, they were even allowed to practice their religion. One synagogue was even set up inside an old convent attached to a Catholic church! This was even while Italy was allied with Germany! Once that alliance ended and Italy sided with the US and Britain, that's when they had to be careful - now the Germans were looking for them. This is when many Italians risked their lives to hide the Jews. When they heard the German troops were coming, they hid the Jews in the tiny villages in the mountains where no one could find them. Many of these villages weren't on any maps, and many only had 1 road in - no one knew they were there, so no one would be looking. I believe the book stated that as many as 30,000 Jews were saved because of the kindness of the Italian people. People even provided falsified documents so that some of them could hide in plain sight. The author was able to arrange for about 10-15 of these survivors and/or their families to go back to Italy to thank the people who saved their lives. During these trips they saw people they hadn't seen in 60 years, who still remembered them, showed their families were they lived, and even reminisced with one of the officers in charge of them! There were even several VIP visits to the vatican, and at one point even a special audience with the Pope! The survivors said that when they asked why the Italians would help them like this, they replied that it was "because the Jews were human beings just like us". How many Holocaust survivors can look back fondly on their internment? At least these people can. Many of them lost family in Auschwitz and they know that had they not been in Italy, they never would have survived. The author provides photographs taken during this time, and many varied documents as well. This book tells about how the Italian people provided a source of hope and goodness during one of Mankind's darkest hours. Definitely a different perspective from other Holocaust books. It is also written in a style more akin to sitting at a family reunion listening to the elder relatives tell stories of their youth. An interesting read and a story that should be told.

Before reading this book, I had only heard the dreadful tales of Holocaust survivors from the German camps. Thanks to Elizabeth Bettina we now know that the Italian camps were humane and comfortable. It was heart warming to hear stories of Italians helping Jews survive the dreadful atrocities committed during World War II. I couldn't stop reading.

A book of story after story about the heroic actions of the Italians in the hill towns could quickly become boring unless the reader had a personal interest. However, this book reads like a detective story. Starting with the discovery of a surprising picture showing Jews picnicking in an Italian concentration camp, we follow Elizabeth Bettina and Vince Marmorale on a surprising journey as they trace the survivors from the camp in Campagna, home of Elizabeth's relatives. As the tales unfold and intertwine, the reader is pulled into the story wondering what will happen next. How many more people will find they're tied to each other through the camps in the Italy?

The book is filled with photos and documents validating the story. These in themselves are precious. I felt amazement along with the author, as person after person produced pictures and official papers documenting their story. It's still hard to believe how different the treatment of Jews in Italy was from that of Jews in Germany. It was a pleasure to read this wonderful story.

This is an amazing story about holocaust survivors in Italy that was so rivetting I could not put it down. I'd never really thought about how Jews in Italy were treated and this book showed that they were treated completely differently than their Jewish counterparts elsewhere in Europe, and this was largely due to the people of Italy's determination and compassion. It was touching and made interesting reading.

The subject is interesting - but unfortunately this was more a book about discovering the story - or a book about writing this book. I would have been far more interested in reading the story itself, not reading about the author's journey in writing this book. Having read many books on the holocaust i was quite interested in finally reading something about the situation in italy, but felt duped - as it was really a book about the author.

It Happened in Italy is the untold stories of how the people of Italy defied the horrors of the holocaust. Bettina (the author) discovers the story of Giovanni Palatucci and his connection to her family's village of Campagna,Italy. Palatucci was an Italian that had access to records of Italy's foreign residents. Instead of using the information (including their religion) to turn them in to be exterminated in Germany, he makes the choice to protect them in camps throughout southern Italy (one of them being in Campagna). Palatucci paid the ultimate price - his life.

I was amazed while reading this book. I had heard and read so many times of how the Catholic Church did little to stop the Holocaust, yet here was proof that many Italian Catholics including nuns, priests and bishops did risk their lives to hide Jews in Italy and save them from Hitler. I'm thankful that Bettina was moved to research and discover those in Italy that helped to save Jews from undeserved deaths. I'm especially impressed with how she was able to arrange meetings of Jewish survivors with their rescuers, bishops and even Pope Benedict.

"Simple goodness triumphed over sophisticated evil...Walters, a survivor said this, "Italians were kind to us and were true examples of the basic principle, Love Thy Neighbor as Thyself...it's important for people to know there were good people during the war--people who risked all to help others survive--by telling my true story, perhaps it could help people in today's world."

I often wondered when I heard of Corrie Ten Boom and how her family hid Jews in their clock repair shop, if others did the same. Elizabeth Bettina was looking at her grandparents pictures and saw something that wasn't quite right in her thinking--which prompted Elizabeth to ask her grandparents' questions. Questions that opened a lot of amazing conversations which lead to her discovery of the Italian camps in Campagna and how Jews were treated there.

Walter, a Jewish man that was transferred to Campagna, Italy, says living in the Italian camps saved his life. Germany had the death camps. Walter says, "It's important to know what happened in Italy. We've been surprised that the Italians do not know what happened in their own back yards. If it were not for the many "Giovanni Palataca's' of Italy, who chose to listen to their own hearts instead of following orders of people who were crazy, well, none of us would have survived.."

Giovanni Palataca was the Italian version of the Shindler depicted in the movie Shindlers List. I'm so glad that I received a review copy of this book. It was exciting to go on this journey with Elizabeth as it took her places she never thought she'd be going and meeting the most extraordinary people. Inside this book were many photographs that depicted the conditions in the Italian camps proving what the survivors said was true. Here is one account of what Walter did in the camp, "I read, played cards, taught English, played the saxophone," even played with the dog he was allowed to keep. Amazing! As the author says, "Truth is stranger than fiction."

I often wondered if people followed their hearts to help the hurting. Many didn't agree with Hitler, that people should be killed just because they were a different religion. You'll have to read this amazing story. You'll be encouraged.


Finding Hope Through Fiction
ACFW Book Club Coordinator

Elizabeth Bettina is an Italian-American Catholic who spent her childhood summers with relatives in Campagna, Italy. During one visit as an adult, she discovered that Jews had been interned in Campagna during the war. She was fascinated by this, wondered why it wasn't talked about, and proceeded to become deeply involved in finding people who had been interned, telling their story and taking them back to the places where they had been. This should have been an absolutely riveting book. It's not. It's dreadful.

I finished reading this book for one reason, and one reason only: I got it through the Vine program and owed them a review. I cannot count the number of times I wanted to throw it against the wall or gritted my teeth in frustration and irritation. It is one of the worst books I have ever read.

And that is sad. Because there is a story to be told here, a story about how and why some Italians helped their Jewish neighbors. But, oh lord, Bettina hasn't got a clue about how to tell it.

She cannot write a straight-forward narrative. She hops, skips and jumps all over the place, repeats herself, and talks about people who haven't been introduced yet. Her language is repetitious. Every phone call requires the recipient to sit down. Everything is a surprise, unbelieveable, "unimaginable". If she described a sindaco's (mayor's) badge of office as a "Miss America sash" one more time, I'd have screamed.

And that's another thing! She constantly throws in Italian words and phrases for no reason or any reason. It's bad enough when she's quoting, because why pick out a few words in the quotation to put in Italian and translate? But "[t]the people . . . took note of the two stranieri, foreigners." "I [was] imagining the fogli, pieces of paper . . ." It's not only annoying; it's pretentious.

Worse, it's all about her. Everything is presented through her reactions, how she felt, what she did. The survivors are mere stick figures. One has no sense of them as individuals. Even when she is quoting them (and she was taping and filming so the dialogue is presumably accurate), there is no emotion. I don't know if that's due to her editing or if she simply hasn't got a clue about interviewing people. (If you want to know how to do oral history, read Studs Terkel!) We barely meet the "good" Italians she is so proud of. But we get Bettina, ad nauseum, ad infinitum.

More disturbing to me was the substance of this book, or, should I say, it's lack of substance. There is absolutely no attempt at any analysis of why Italy was different (if it was). I compare this to another book I've read,The Mezuzah in the Madonna's Foot: Marranos and Other Secret Jews--A Woman Discovers Her Spiritual Heritage , which at least tries to answer the perhaps unanswerable question: why did Fascist Spain open its borders to Jewish refugees from the Holocaust?) It seems as though it never occurs to Bettina to ask the question.

Nor does Bettina make any effort to contextualize her story. Look. I know that the concentration camps in Italy were not death camps. I know that conditions were better there than elsewhere (though to say that is rather like Berlusconi telling the survivors of the L'Aquila earthquake to treat the experience like a camping weekend). I know that some Italians did their best to save Jewish lives. And I know that this book is focused on a sliver of Holocaust history. But do not toss a glance at the racial laws, at the anti-Semitic policies that prevented Jews from attending school or practicing their professions, and act as though that was nothing. It wasn't nothing! Do not ignore the effect of the profound, historic anti-Semitism of the Catholic Church! Do not ignore the murder of 15% of Italy's Jewish population! Do not ignore the failure of the Pope to speak out! Acknowledge these things!

Now perhaps someone will go out and write a good book on this subject.

Imagine: You are suddenly torn away from your home and possessions and are removed with others of your kind to a place where you must check in daily with the police and obey a strict curfew. You can't leave, practice your profession, carry anything that might be used as a weapon, visit a bar, or attend any meeting or any form of entertainment. You are imprisoned there for years, and yet for the rest of your life you will be passionately grateful to your captors and will remember your incarceration as pleasant. You are a Jew during World War II, sent to a concentration camp...in Italy.

Elizabeth Bettina, a third-generation Italian Catholic from New York City couldn't get over the picture: Taken in the 1940's of a gathering on the steps of the church where her grandparents were married, in the tiny, Catholic town of Campagna, the snapshot clearly included a priest, a police officer, and a rabbi. A rabbi? Bettina's research into the unmentioned history of her grandmother's hometown reveals a surprising tale of ordinary goodness in a time of extraordinary evil.

The writing and style of this book are only mediocre, but the story itself is compelling and well worth reading. Italy was Hitler's ally in World War II, and Mussolini enacted laws against Jews that would have been terrible in a better time and place. Yet Bettina uncovers a bright candle in the darkness of the Holocaust, told mostly through stories of people who survived only because they lived in Italy, protected by exceptional heroes like Giovanni Patalucci ("The Italian Schindler," a police official who saved thousands of Jewish lives before being discovered and sent to Dachau, where he died); by ordinary townsfolk who endangered themselves and their families with their stubborn resistance to the idea that Jews were anything other than "people like us"; and yes, even by the maddeningly inefficient Italian approach to life and government, which enabled official orders concerning the Jews to be tossed in a drawer and "lost."

Bettina also deserves credit for her tireless efforts to find these survivors, document their stories, and in many cases facilitate highly emotional and deeply meaningful reunions. The story of her quest is interesting in itself, although it dominates the book more than I would like, often overshadowing the greater story.

Disclaimer: I was provided a review copy of this book from the publisher.

The book "It Happened In Italy" presents us with a wonderful and untold WWII story: the story of the Jews who survived, and actually didn't have that bad of a time, thanks to Italian Catholics who helped them hide and escape from the clutches of the Nazis.

The problem with this book is that it doesn't really tell this story.

Oh, we do get personal stories of survivors, and the clear difference between being in a camp in Italy and a camp anywhere else in Europe. (Many survivors said that living in a prison camp in Italy was like being in "a hotel"). As I said, it's a wonderful, upbeat story of WWII -- and a story we haven't heard before, which is a shame.

However, this book is mainly about the author, Elizabeth Bettina, and her experiences after she dug up this story and helped a few of the survivors go back to Italy to visit the people who helped them survive. And that's the problem with this book! It's only partly about those incidents during WWII. It's mostly about Elizabeth Bettina and the coincidences she encountered and good times she had.

Granted, from story-telling point of view, "We didn't have that bad a time, and we escaped and lived happy lives," isn't all that dramatic of a story. Twenty or thirty stories like that get a bit samey. But when a book pertains to be about an incident during WWII, it should be about THAT, and not about someone finding out about that. I felt that instead of being titled "It Happened in Italy", it should have been titled, "My Adventures In And Around What Happened In Italy." (Less succinct, but more precise.) In fact, this has been a problem with a number of recent non-fiction books I've read lately; they didn't need to be in first person, and in fact could have benefited by not being in first-person. And because the book focuses on her, and she's presumably going to go on locating and helping survivors, it doesn't really have a big finish -- it just ends.

However, as I said, the book does make some good points and presents us with formerly untold stories; something any WWII buff would be interested to find out about. It IS important that these stories get told. I simply wish they had been told on their own.

Bettina writes a story that is very engaging and amazing. My attention was completely wrapped up in the stories of the people she met. There are a lot of pictures within the book to make the past come alive. The author manages to show the contrast between Italy's compassion and most of Europe's cruel treatment of the Jewish people. This book is a great secondary resource for WWII education and is a quick, attention grabbing read.