Carugno Osman

Carugno, Osman In September 1943, after the surrender of Italy, a group of 38 Jews, 34 of them from Yugoslavia, who were held in Italy as civilian internees, left their camp in Asolo, near Treviso, and headed toward the south in the hope of reaching the Allied forces. The refugees, mostly women and children, were penniless and without documents. After some adventures, they got as far as Bellaria, on the Adriatic shore, still ruled by the Fascists and their German allies. They met the innkeeper Ezio Giorgetti* who put his empty pension at their disposal. The maresciallo dei Carabinieri, Osman Carugno, took the group under his wing. He visited often and helped them establish contact with the clergy, as well as with anti-fascist elements. When it was necessary, he also took care of the medical needs of the members of the group. Carugno, through connections with police officers in the area, was able to protect them. Every two or three months, the refugees changed their dwellings. From Giorgetti’s pension Savoia, which they had to leave because of the German order to evacuate all houses on the shore, they moved to other villages in the area. Then they returned to another pension in Bellaria. They were supplied with false identity cards in which their names were changed to Italian names: Konforty became Conforti, Pick became Piccoli, etc. Their papers were also stamped with a fake stamp of the municipality of Barletta. Josef Konforty, one of the group, recalled that once, in Pugliano Vecchio, they aroused the interest of the local maresciallo, so Carugno paid him a visit, appealing to him to give the group all the necessary support. He introduced them as his personal friends, and this was of great help to them. All the inhabitants of Pugliano Vecchio extended help by accommodating the group and sharing their meager food with them. In September 1944, with the arrival of the Allied troops, their odyssey was over. On April 14, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized OsmanCarugno as Righteous Among the Nations.