Testimony of Chaim Kohen, born in Thessaloniki, Greece in 1930, regarding his life in hiding among nuns and with a Greek Christian family in Athens, and his escape to Turkey
Childhood and move to Athens; war with Italy in 1940; German occupation in 1941; escape with his family to the village of Plaka in 1941; hiding for about two months; family’s return to Athens in 1941; life under Italian regime; the great famine; move, with assistance from Italian governor (a friend of his father’s), into hiding among Italian nuns in the hospital complex in the Anaros region in 1942–1943; father’s move of the family to a...
Testimony of Tzuri (Alfonso) Redzhiniano, born in Tripoli, Libya in 1938, regarding his experiences of deportation to Bergen-Belsen camp
His family before the war; deportation of the family to Italy in January 1942; life in the Civitella del Tronto citadel; restrictions on movement; help from the Italian population; help from the Red Cross; deportation to Bergen-Belsen in September 1943; life in the camp; roll calls; abuse; starvation; packages from the Red Cross; Yom Kippur; liberation by the British in April 1945; return to Tripoli; life after the war; aliya to Israel in 1950; absorption.
Testimony of Shlomo Pash, born in Landsberg Warthe, Germany in 1935, regarding his experiences as a child in Berlin, Potenza, a Jewish orphanage in Torino, on a farm in the area of Casale Monferrato, and more
Life in Berlin before the war; his father’s position as a judge; deportation of his father to a concentration camp and his poisoning in 1939; escape with his mother to Potenza; escape to Torino; life in a Jewish orphanage; attitude of the Jewish community after the German occupation of northern Italy; escape with other children from the orphanage to Casale Monferrato; closure of the orphanage and...
German occupation ensues in 1940; family tries unsuccessfully to escape to the south of France (to Rue); escaping back to Lens in 1940; escaping to Paris; escaping to Piot in 1941; attempting to run the border with the family to the Free Zone of France; arrested by the Germans; trial and detention in a lockup in Biarritz in 1941; father detained separately; released and returns to Paris for several months; another attempt to escape to the south of France; escaping to Benejacoq in 1941; life in hiding there; transferred with help from the French resistance and the Jewish MJC organization to a convent in...
Family background—traditional family; his father was director of a Jewish company that sold musical instruments; the neighborhood was mostly Italian-French; attendance at a French school; expulsion from school; German occupation at the end of 1942; air raids; sudden eviction from their home after their neighbors informed on them; German withdrawal in May 1943; return home; joining Hashomer Hatzair movement in 1948; active in the movement up to his aliya in 1956; training by the Mossad and return to Tunisia as a Mossad agent up to his official aliya to Israel in 1958; posting to France; his life up to this...
Testimony of Eliahu Mesika, born in Bizerte, Tunisia, in 1937, regarding his experiences as a child in Bizerte, Mateur, and Tunis
His life before the war; son of a family of rabbis; the Italian occupation in 1939; his family’s escape to Mateur; escape back to Bizerte after two months; life there until the end of 1942; the German occupation in November 1942; air raids; evacuation by order of the Allies; escape to Tunis; his experiences at the school in the Jewish quarter; his father saved from being sent to forced labor; liberation by the British army in May 1943; his studies at a French school;...
Testimony of Mikhael Miki Amodai, born in 1929 in Skopje, Yugoslavia, about his experiences in Belgrade, camps in Kavaje and Ferramonti di Tarsia, L'Aquila, and more
Childhood in Skopje and Belgrade; German occupation ensues on April 6, 1941; escaping with family to Herzegovina; escaping with family to Boka Kotorska in July 1941; deportation to the camp in Kavaje; treatment by the Italian commander; transfer to the Ferramonti di Tarsia camp in October 1941; escaping with his family to Abruzzi; escaping to Pizzoli; escaping to Confino Libero; encountering other refugees from Yugoslavia; German occupation...
The testimony of Rut (Milhofer) Bar Tana, born in 1935 in Zagreb, Yugoslavia.
Childhood in Zagreb; yellow badges also for children; hiding with friends; escape to Split in July 1941 with Aryan papers, which were sent to Rabbi Freiberger and his family members; transfer to Vela Luka on the Italian-controlled island of Korcula; living in free quarantine (Confino Libero); Delasem organization; the attitude of the Italians; the attitude of the Croatian population; the surrender of Italy and the entry of the Germans in the fall of 1943; transfer in small ships, under aircraft fire, to southern Italy; life in the...
Testimony of Viviana Graner née Volterra, born in 1925 in Ancona, Italy, about her experiences in Ancona and in hiding with a family in Monte S. Martino, 1943–1944
Offspring of assimilated family in Ancona; father an anti-Fascist activist; father warned by authorities; promulgation of racial laws in 193; father dismissed from his teaching job; witness studies in a community setting; is attracted to Judaism; suffers from economic hardships; German occupation ensues in 1943; family escapes after being warned in advance; family finds a hideout in Monte S. Martino; conceals their Jewishness; prayerbook deposited...