Friday, August 25, 2006

Holocaust Survivor Campaigns to Honor Italian Town That Saved Family from Nazis

The ANNOTICO Report

Gandino, a little town, nestled in the countryside near Milan, Italy, with a population of about 5,000 now, will never be forgotten by Marina Lowi Zinn, because the villagers sheltered her and her family, as German Refugees from the Nazis during the Holocaust.

It's a heartwarming story that  follows on the theme of Walter Wolff's "Bad Times Good People" who as a survivor from Dachau, tells a deep and neglected story of how Italians proved their humanity during the worst period of 20th century history, and how he personally was saved by Italians he encountered, complete strangers who kept risking their lives to save him during the dark days of the war and the military occupation.

 

SURVIVOR CAMPAIGNS TO HONOR TOWN THAT HID HER FAMILY FROM NAZIS

New Jersey Jewish News

Central Feature

by Enid Weiss

NJJN Staff Writer

August 24, 2006

Marina Lowi Zinn has never forgotten the small Italian town or the people there who sheltered her and her family from the Nazis during the Holocaust.

Her South Plainfield home is decorated with photographs and paintings of Gandino, the town where the Lowi family hid, along with posters from modern-day Holocaust commemoration ceremonies held in Gandino. The town, nestled in the countryside near Milan, now has a population of about 5,000.

Zinn and her husband, Ralph, have spent years collecting newspaper clippings, letters, and other documents  both old and new  and sending them on to Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority in Israel. In 2005, six residents of Gandino directly involved in hiding her family  Vincenzo Rudelli, Bortolo and Battistina Ongaro, Francesco and Maria Nodari, and Giovanni Servalli  were honored as Righteous Among the Nations.

Zinn also spearheaded an effort in coordination with the National Italian American Foundation in 1995 to plant trees in Israel in memory of those six Righteous Gentiles. The NIAF, which is based in Washington, DC, is an advocacy group geared toward raising the prominence of Italian culture and society in the United States and monitoring the media for negative or inaccurate images of Italians and Italian-Americans.

But, said Zinn, all those efforts were not enough; she wants the entire town recognized.

They deserve it  everybody knew [Jews] were hiding but nobody gave us away, Zinn said in an interview with NJ Jewish News. She was in Gandino in 2000 when the Yad Vashem honor was conferred; the event was in the newspapers there, she said, and has been every year since then, even though there are no Jews in Gandino.

Gandino remembers its Jews; why cant Jews remember Gandino? said Zinn.

Zinn said shes been told by Yad Vashem officials that there isnt enough documentation to honor the entire towns population as Righteous Gentiles. Shes frustrated because nearly everyone in the small town knew there were Jews hiding there, and most even knew her family, yet no one sold them out.

In hiding

Anti-Semitism wasnt originally part of Italian dictator Benito Mussolinis political platform; many Jews even joined his Fascist Party (and were in leadership positions for 15 years). Italy allied itself with Germany and Japan in 1937, and the Italian dictator adopted (Racial Purity Laws ) in 1938. [To prevent Italian Military from Intermarrying with Ethiopians, to demand loyalty  to Italy of Zionists, and Encite Nationalistic Spirit]

In 1942, Lowi, her parents, and brother were living in Milan [where they had escaped to from Germany] when her father arranged to smuggle his two children out of Italy to Belgium in a florists truck. But the children got the measles and couldnt go. They were in hiding with their mother when her father was deported to Auschwitz, where he was killed.

They made their way north, out of Milan, to a small house in the countryside near Gandino in the foothills of the Alps.

Giovanni Servalli provided six-year-old Zinn and her brother with false papers. The siblings masqueraded as Christian children under the name Carnazzi.

My mother met lots of nice people, Zinn said.

She continued, I was having a good time in the mountains  the fresh air. But winter was coming, and we heard that German Nazis and Italian fascists had begun conducting raids of homes in the area. They were looking for Jews.

Fearful that they would be discovered, the family left their hiding place in the countryside and moved in with a family in Gandino. That house was partially hidden by a large rock and lacked heat and running water.

It was so cold in the winter, said Zinn, that her mother went to a nearby convent and the siblings were moved to a Catholic boarding school. Zinn pointed to a photo of a sculpture. Thats a picture of a bronze bust in the hospital in Gandino. The artist saw my mother when she was in the convent and asked her to pose for it. At the time, she was hiding as a nun.

I still have the yellow and white fabric with my school number. My mother came to visit us during the off-hours, but she always came during my piano lessons. One day the piano teacher became suspicious and asked, Are you Jewish?

Lowi said that at the time she didnt know it, but found out after the war that there were other Jewish children being sheltered at the school.

The Lowi children hid at the school less than a full school year before they had to move again. The mother superior at the school was the only one who could be trusted with their identity, and she discovered that German officials were investigating area convents and schools, looking for Jewish children.

In 1943, Italy made peace with the Allies, and the Allies occupied parts of the country while Germany took control of other parts. The Nazis then hunted down (Refugee) Jews, eventually deporting more than 7,000 to concentration camps in East Europe.

The Lowi and the Ongaro families became close and the children played together, she recalled. To this day, Zinn and one of the Ongaro children keep in touch  writing letters and talking on the telephone. The Lowis lived quietly, posing as Christians until, one day, the Nazis arrived.

We were small but we knew we couldnt tell them we were Jewish, said Zinn, who still remembers the day vividly. She and her brother also had to make sure they did not let on that they understood German. The Nazis went through the house and storage room. They kicked the luggage looking for ammunition.

Luckily the suitcases didnt open because thats where the family stored their Hebrew books, she said. The Nazis also uncovered a small sewing box her mother had purchased as a birthday present for her.

Zinn said, She gave it to me then, saying, Who knows how long well be alive.

By the time the war ended, 26 families had helped hide the Lowis and other Jewish families. And every time the Nazis came looking for Jews, no one from the town helped them, she said.

Zinn said, Not one Jew was arrested from that town.

After the war, the Lowi family returned to Milan.

 

The ANNOTICO Reports are Archived at:

Italia USA: http://www.ItaliaUSA.com (Formerly Italy at St Louis)

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net