4th September, racial laws and persecution of the Jews in South Tyrol

On Tuesday 4 September, at 5 pm, MEIS (Via Piangipane 81, Ferrara) will host the presentation of Quando la patria uccide (When homeland kills). It’s a collection of stories of Jewish families from South Tyrol, found by authors Sabine Mayr and Joachim Innerhofer (Raetia Edition, Bolzano, 2016).

Shoah victims from South Tyrol were monitored and expelled by fascist authorities, and most of them were persecuted and deported by the local nazis. After 1945, several survivors were denied the compensation for material damage, and the memory of those who were murdered was erased.

Quando la patria uccide shows the various ways of antisemitism in South Tyrol, where it was more strongly rooted. It tells the suffering of the many victims of the Shoah, that contributed strongly in different fields, such as medicine, economy, the development of infrastructures, culture, tourism, journalism, social life. It also names the people who are to blame and those who took advantage of the situation.

MEIS director, Simonetta Della Seta, will introduce this moving journey into the memory.

Among others who will share their testimonies : Cesare Finzi, who in September 1943 fled to Ferrara under the name of Cesare Franzi; Bruno Laufer, who had to run away from Merano and Bolzano with his family and survived by hiding in the house of some Italian farmers; Lydia Cevidalli, Aziadé Gabai’s daughter, that escaped the deportations to the concentration camps by living under an alias at a friend’s house; Maria Luisa Crosina who, with her book Le storie ritrovate. Ebrei nella provincia di Trento 1938-1945 (Rediscovered stories. Jews in the province of Trento 1938-1945) gave a voice to the Jews that lived under the nazi-fascist regime in Trentino.

Entrance is free.

Partecipano con le loro testimonianze: Cesare Finzi, che nel settembre 1943 riuscì a mettersi in salvo fuggendo da Ferrara con lo pseudonimo di Cesare Franzi; Bruno Laufer, che con la famiglia dovette scappare da Merano e poi da Bolzano, e sopravvisse nascondendosi in casa di contadini italiani; Lydia Cevidalli, figlia di Aziadé Gabai, che evitò la deportazione nei campi di concentramento andando a vivere sotto falso nome in casa di un’amica; Maria Luisa Crosina che, con il volume Le storie ritrovate. Ebrei nella provincia di Trento 1938-1945, ha ridato voce agli ebrei del Trentino sotto il regime nazifascista.

L’appuntamento è a ingresso gratuito.