From Publishers Weekly
Although these interviews with Jews who lived in Fascist Italy are interesting, and Caracciolo has performed a public service by collecting them, they suffer from a flawed presentation. Except for what the subjects reveal themselves, there is virtually no material about who these people are. The reader must turn to notes tucked in the back in order to discover, for example, that the Rabbi Elio Toaff is now the Chief Rabbi of Rome, "the most prominent of Italian rabbis." Also, there is evidence throughout of a sometimes questionable zeal to make the Italians heroes. Historian Renzo De Felice goes so far in his foreword as to say that "In Italy racism was unknown, and anti-Semitism did not have a real tradition of its own or a mass presence. Catholic anti-Semitism was kept within circumscribed limits." Journalist Caracciolo's leading interviewing tactics almost force his interviewees to agree with his generous assessment of Italians. For example, Feri and Zlata Noiman, who wed at the Ferramonti concentration camp, are asked whether their 41-year marriage has been happy. When they answer in the affirmative, Caracciolo prompts, "Could one say, could you say, that you owe this happiness... your life, to the Italians?" There are touching stories here of the heroism of people like Father Libero Raganella, who hid Jews in convents, but readers will need to sort through the poor organization and shoddy journalism.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Review
Of some 50,000 Jews in pre-war Italy, 42,000 managed to survive the World War II period. In a country allied with the National Socialists (Nazi) how did so many survive when elsewhere on the continent under Nazi control millions did not? Why did individuals and networks take such great risks to rescue them? During the mid-1980s the Italian journalist Nicola Caracciolo, intent on answering these questions, interviewed more than sixty Jewish survivors of the Italy of that era. His subjects ranged from the well known to the ordinary and unknown. Here, Florette Rechnitz Koffler and Richard Koffler provide translations of those interviews, which show that Italy, despite its bombast, its military adventurism, its very real cruelties and acts of repression, never succumbed to the genocidal mania of its German ally, and covertly opposed the "final solution". Uncertain Refuge: Italy and the Jews During the Holocaust is a "must have" addition to any serious holocaust studies collection. -- Midwest Book Review
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
