Italian Jewish Families

By studying a number of families, Stille is able to show the reader the whole get wind of what it was like in Italy during this period. He shows us what it was like for the Italian Jewish family which was in favor of fascism, what it was like for the family which was against fascism, and what it was like for the family which was to the highest degree hurt by fascism.

Stille writes that the members of these Jewish Italian families

were typical Italians, lived by the same times, were subject to the same forces and passions. As with another(prenominal) Italians, their look during fascism ran the full gamut from the foolish and contemptible to the wise and the heroic (16).

The Ovazza family was fascist. The percentage point of the family had three words put on his tombstone: "Fatherland, trustfulness and Family" (19), the main ideas of fascism. Ernesto Ovazza was not a Jew who was separate from other Jews, nevertheless(prenominal) was president of the Jewish community in Turin. He was wealthy and a powerful part of the community and the city: "By supporting the Fascist Party when it came to power in 1922, Ernesto Ovazza believed he was reinforcing the bonds among his family, the Jewish community and the Italian nation" (19).

The belief in fascism was passed from father to son in the Ovazza family. Son Ettore joined in bringing Mussolini to power. The family believed that the family and the nation would both grow richer and stronger because of fascism. However, "although Ettore's en gum olibanumiasm for the pertly regime was

The Foas had always seen themselves as anti-fascists, but as spectators in the distant battle mingled with the regime and its opponents. Now, with friends . . . in jail and the eyes of the nation . . .on the "anti-fascist Jews of Turin," they had perfectly go away involuntary protagonists of the drama. . . . The family had never thought there was every connection between their being anti-fascists and their being Jews, but the arrests of 1934 oblige them to consider the question (101).

For the next four years, Ettore worked to "wage a vigorous battle on dickens fronts: defending the Jews against their antisemitic critics while also attacking Zionist and antifascist Jews whose supposed overlook of patriotism placed all the others under suspicion" (21).

In 1940, however, after Italy entered into World War II, the fascists cracked down on the ghetto Jews as well. The fascists "deprived Jewish street peddlers of their vending licenses, and thus took the bread from the tables of many ghetto families" (181).

The Di Verolis were much more religious than the other two families, which is partly explained by the fact that the other two families were more assimilated than the Di Verolis. The ghetto gave the Di Verolis protection from the assimilation which Jewish families in the intricate population had to deal with. This is another reason why the Di Verolis were less political than the other two families. The Di Verolis simply did not encounter to take a stand in politics, because they lived in a more insulated world. Also, they were poorer than the other two families and were more concerned with spiritedness from day to day, which left them less time and energy to become politically involved.

In a letter from Vittorio which was written in the early days of 1938, "some seven months before the exit of the race manifesto, Vittorio warned his parents: 'I can tell from your letters you are incensed about the spreading anti-Semitism. You will see much worse, so be prepared'" (144).

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