UNICO's Hillside program attempts to correct Mis Impressions that the Jewish Community shows little Enthusiasm to present .Yet UNICO fails to include several important facts. 
1. Jews were a high % of the Fascist Party when Mussolini made his March on Rome
2. Jews held a ENORMOUSLY disproportionate number  of the High Official Positions, when there were 50,000 Jews in a country of 50 million, which was 1/10  of One Percent 
3. That which is referred to as Anti Semitic Legislation of 1938 were Actually RACIAL PURITY LAWS to Discourage Italian soldiers in Ethiopia from marrying local women that are unusually attractive. 
It also included Provisions that required Jews to sign Loyalty Oaths to Italy, because many Jews that were highly positioned in the Italian government were putting their loyalty to Zionism before their Loyalty to Italy, and had become pawns of the British Foreign Service in exchange for "favors" detrimental to Italy.
4. All of the 8,000 Jews referred to as Italians were Actually German, and Eastern European Jewish Refugees. 
NO ITALIAN JEWS WERE AT ANYTIME SENT TO GERMANY, for being Jewish. Yes Many Anti Fascists were.
5. Both Anti Fascist Jews and Jewish Refugees were Hidden and Protected by NON -Jews, when being discovered would  lead to the NON Jews death. 
6. Other Refugee Jews were held in Detention Camps that protected them from the Nazi SS, and were FAR more comfortable than the US Internment camps. There were Synagogues, Schools, cultural Entertainment, and FREE PASSAGE out of the Camp during the Day, and EVEN the visitation of Italians into the Camp for Medical Services
7. Trieste, ITALY  was the GREATEST Port of Disembarkation of German and Eastern Refugee Jews to Freedom than any place in Europe. 

HILLSIDE -- Survivors and historians say it’s one of the most remarkable, but perhaps least known, stories of World War II: the high survival rate of Italy’s Jews, despite fascist dictator Benito Mussolini’s alliance with Adolf Hitler.
Roughly 80 percent of Jews in Italy survived the Holocaust, while elsewhere in Europe about the same percentage were murdered by the Nazis.
That impressive statistic has inspired a special program Monday on "Italians and the Holocaust," hosted by the Hillside chapter of the Italian-American group UNICO. 
Speakers will discuss the Holocaust, and the role Italy played in the survival of about 40,000 of its own Jews.
"Unfortunately, it’s really an untold story," Andre DiMino, the national president of UNICO, said yesterday. "I know a number of Italian-Americans who were not even aware this happened in Italy."
It’s also a story that must be balanced with tragedy: in total, about 8,000 Italian Jews were deported to Nazi death camps. In addition, Jews in Italy were confined to internment camps, their civil rights stripped away.
Italians were not blameless during the Holocaust and many were complacent, said Alan Brill, an associate professor at Seton Hall’s Graduate Department of Jewish-Christian Studies.
However, he said, "the bottom line is that for many reasons, Italy did not accept the Nazi genocidal plan. In other countries, almost everyone perished."
Anti-Semitism was less virulent [Wrong , It was almost begnign)in Italy than its Nazi form, he said. Most common Italians and lower-level government officials were opposed to targeting Jews. The Italian version of anti-Jewish legislation in 1938 had significant loopholes. And many Italian Jews who perished had been rounded up by the Germans in areas around Rome. 
During five trips to Italy, Vince Marmorale, a retired history teacher from Long Island, said he interviewed Jewish survivors about the Italian farmers, priests and neighbors who protected them. He will share clips from his documentary at the UNICO event, at 7 p.m. in the municipal building on Liberty Avenue.
"I wanted to tell the story of how ordinary people did the right thing," he said. "It’s an imperfect story."....
"Future generations should know that at the time, there were people who managed to rescue, to help," he said.
http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/2010/
04/hillside_program_to_focus_on_u.html
 
 

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