Antoniono Pietro & Maria (Brunetto); Son: Carlo

Pietro & Maria Antoniono and their son, Carlo Marco Levi, a chemist, lived with his family in Torino, where he worked for the Shell oil company. In 1938, with the promulgation of the anti-Jewish laws, he was fired from his job. In 1940, he decided to relocate his family to the village of Torre Bairo (today Torre Canavese), about 25 km north of Torino. At first they stayed in the local inn, and then Levi bought a house with a plot of land, with which he hoped to earn a living as a farmer. He had no previous farming experience, but the local farmers were very friendly and offered helpful advice. The Levi family – Marco, his wife Virginia, their sons, six-year-old Riccardo, and three-year-old Tullio, and Virginia’s mother, Adele – established a very close relationship with one family in particular: Pietro (Peru) and Maria (Merla) Antoniono and their two children, Carlo, 14, and Gina, 12. In December 1943 it became no longer safe for the Levis to stay in their house in Torre. However, Virginia's mother Adele was quite frail, and moving her to a new place was out of the question. Pietro and Maria Antoniono insisted that they would take care of Adele and young Tullio in their own home. Furthermore, the Antonionos found a hiding place for Marco, Virginia and Riccardo in the rectory of the "Tre Ciuchè" church in the vicinity, and provided them with food. Not long afterwards, Adele passed away, and the Antonionos transferred Tullio to his parents’ hiding place. However, when someone leaked their whereabouts to the authorities, the Levis were forced to leave the church. Once again, the Antonionos came to their rescue and found them a new hiding place in an isolated farmhouse in the village of Muriaglio. During a snowstorm at night in January 1944, the Antonionos helped move the Jewish family to their new lodgings. They continued to supply the Levis with all of their daily needs, bringing the provisions to them by bicycle. When Carlo turned 18 in 1944, he becameeligible for army service but refused to enlist. Despite the risk of his own arrest for desertion, he continued to deliver goods to the Levi family. On the eve of Passover, Carlo was carrying a Haggada concealed in a bundle of laundry when he was stopped by the Fascist police and searched. Luckily, the police found nothing and he was allowed to continue on his way. In December 1944, the Levi family had to leave Muriaglio in a hurry, and the Antonionos took them to a new hiding address in a place called “Le Cascine” – a group of isolated houses scattered in the woods near Torre. When Carlo could no longer bring the family supplies because he was forced to go into hiding himself, his sister Gina continued in his stead. The Levis remained in Le Cascine until April 1945, with the Antoniono family looking out for their wellbeing until the very end of the war. On January 31, 2011, Yad Vashem recognized Pietro and Maria Antoniono and their son Carlo as Righteous Among the Nations.