Caronia Giuseppe

Caronia, Giuseppe Prof. Giuseppe Caronia was the director of a clinic of infectious diseases in Umberto I Rome University Hospital, and was thus in a position to hospitalize dozens of Jews within the hospital and thus keep them safe. On October 16, 1943, the date of the roundup of the Jews in Rome, Aldo Di Castro, an antiquarian, was out of Rome. When he returned home, he realized that the Nazis had arrested his family. He roamed the streets, looking for a place to hide, until he met a friend who told him that he had found shelter in the clinic of Prof. Caronia, and suggested that Di Castro turn to the chief nurse, Mother Salesia. As he had no other alternative, Di Castro went to the hospital and spoke to her. He did not tell her he was a Jew, but did say that he was being persecuted by the Nazis. The chief nurse gave him a bed, and the next day he was included in the group examined by Prof. Caronia. Since the latter did not find any medical problem, he inquired what his complaint was. Aldo Di Castro whispered that he was suffering from the “Kesselring disease.” Kesselring was the general commanding the German occupying forces in Italy. For some time Di Castro remained in the clinic as a patient. Then he was transferred to another section of the clinic, in the children’s wards, and posed as a doctor. During that time, Di Castro detected many patients that, like him, were being protected by the head of the department. Among them were the members of the Sonnino family – Daniele, his wife, Elvira Di Castro, and their two young children, Giacomo, and Eugenio. Prof. Caronia also saved non-Jews, deserters from the Italian army and university professors. General Italo (later Iram) Tomasso, who was saved by Prof. Caronia in the clinic between October 1943 and June 1944, recalled that about 50 Jews were sheltered there. Tomasso became a close friend of Di Castro, there. After the war, Prof. Caronia was appointed president of Rome University and elected as deputy tothe first parliament of the Republic. On June 24, 1996, Yad Vashem recognized Prof. Giuseppe Caronia as Righteous Among the Nations.