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Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism

by Alexander Stille

Summary

A profoundly moving history of Italy's Jews under the shadow of the Holocaust, told through the lives of five Jewish Italian families: the Ovazzas of Turin, who prospered under Mussolini and whose patriarch became a prominent fascist; the Foas of Turin, whose children included both an antifascist activist and a Fascist Party member; the Di Verolis of Rome, who struggled for survival in the ghetto; the Teglios of Genoa, one of whom worked with the Catholic church to save hundreds of Jews; and the Schonheits of Ferrara, who were sent to Buchenwald and Ravensbruck.

This extraordinary montage—combining interview, narrative, and the evocation of Italian culture—depicts the lives of five Italian Jewish families whose experiences embody the paradoxical climate of benevolence and betrayal, and resurrects a forgotten and deeply tragic era in the history of two peoples.
"An achievement that deserves to stand next to the most insightful fiction about life and death under fascism."
—Herbert Mitgang, THE NEW YORK TIMES

Cover design by Louise Fili

Cover photography courtesy of the author