Foreign Jews in Italy: 1940-1945
Here are presented the results of a research on foreign Jews subject to internment in Italy between 1940-1943. The database that contains all relevant information acquired and that makes such information available was implemented thanks to the support of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany and of the former Department of History of the University of Pisa. The project was coordinated by Prof. Paolo Pezzino and with the collaboration of Dr. Guri Schwarz. Dr. Francesca Cappella, unfortunately prematurely died, carried out the research and the database.
The database, originally (2009) available on the website of the former Department of History at the University of Pisa, is now published on the website of CISE – Interdepartmental Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Pisa.
The main source of information regarding the internment of foreign Jews is a specific archival fund of the Ministry of Interior, entitled Foreigners subject to internment and espionage. This specific fund contains the personal files regarding Jews, and not only Jews, that were interned by the fascist regime after the declaration of war.
The database allows queries in diverse fields. Where available, in the field Note more in-depth information regarding the individual is present. We have used Liliana Picciotto’s book Il Libro della Memoria (Milan 2002) as a source regarding the deportations from Italy. This research has allowed to discover the names of the foreign Jews that were interned in Italy and avoided deportation as well as to acquire new names of foreign Jews arrested in Italy by fascist and/or German authorities and that died in the Shoah. This database represents a work in progress: at the moment we have completed the analysis of over 70% of the data, and as the work will proceed we will insert the new elements we acquire. To develop the research we had to proceed, in collaboration with the Centrale State Archive in Rome, to the creation of an inventory for the archival fund, made up of over 15.300 nominative files, to identify - among all others - the Jews that were subject to internment procedure. Of the 5830 files regarding such foreign Jews, which correspond to over 10.000 individuals who were interned, Dr. Francesca Cappella had completed the analysis and data elaboration for over 70%. The documentation presented is in any case complete for what regards the anagraphic data of the interned Jews and the deportation, and most of all it testifies with certainty, for all the individuals mentioned, their internment in Italy as an effect of the fascist regime’s racial policies.
The difficult task of gathering all this information has been possible thanks to the precious collaboration of Dr. Lucilla Garofalo, archivist at the Central State Archive in Rome. The informatic ability of Dr. Matteo Menghi has also been fundamental for the implementation of the software supporting this database.
All those who recognize themselves among the individuals mentioned in the database, and all those that can contribute to enrich our knowledge of event through their testimony may contact CISE – Interdepartmental Centre for Jews Studies at University of Pisa, writing to this email address: mafalda.toniazzi@cise.unipi.it
On the website of the CDEC, Foundation Centre of Contemporary Jewish Documentation, at http://www.cdec.it/ebrei_stranieri/, is available a “General Index of foreign Jews interned in Italy 1940-1943”, which integrates the lists produced by Francesca Cappella and the Anna Pizzuti ones, whose database (http://www.annapizzuti.it) contains the names and the data for 9337 foreign Jews, and is constantly updated; these names are taken from lists basically collected at the Central State Archive in Rome, “Interior Ministry, Cat.A16, Foreigners and foreign Jews”, with a significant expansion of research in other archives.
Pisa, May 2015