Congratulations Dr, Alicia Tisdale

1945. We contacted American
leaders and visiting
statesmen seeking support
for the anticipated Israel
statehood.
"Si" traveled widely
thereafter, pleading for sup-
port, enrolling enthusiasts.
He was a convincing speaker
and authored many articles,
pamphlets and two books.
AIPAC, which has emerged
in the more than 30 years
since its founding into the
great pleader in defense of
Zionism and Israel, owed
much of its accomplished

strength to the enthusiasm
generated by him. He was one
of my closest associates in the
Jewish cause and we shared
a great satisfaction in the
heartening fulfillment of the
prophesised redemption. Si
Kenen's dreams became
realities and the enthusiasm
he generated now spells out a
firmly-functioning AIPAC.
His venerated memory can
best be respected and kept
fully functioning by render-
ing continuing strength to
the movement that was
primarily his creation.

We are so proud of
you for earning
your Ph.D. from
the University of
Michigan.

With all our love,

Paul, Larry, Ronna and Ida

LOOKING BACK

Film Documents Italian
Efforts To Save Jews

CARL ALPERT

Special to The Jewish News

aifa — The Nazis con-
quered Greece in
November, 1941, but
permitted their ally, Italy, to
control most of the country.
Salonica, which contained
many Jews, remained in Ger-
man hands, and the Nazis
proceeded to round them up
for deportation. However, the
Italian consul there, Guelfo
Zamboni, began to issue "cer-
tificates of Italian nationali-
ty" to all who came to him,
and the word spread rapidly.
The Germans had to honor
these documents, and hun-
dreds of Jews were enabled to
make their way to safety in
the Italian zone.
The top ranking Italian
diplomat in. Greece,
Pellegrine Ghigi,' gave the
consul his full support. Inter-
viewed not long ago, the ag-
ing Ghigi was asked:
"You approved the false
documents?"
"I don't think they were
false. They were very . . . very
. . . (meaningful pause). The
persons you mention either
had an Italian wife, or went to
an Italian school or had
visited Italy!"
"But they weren't Italian."
"No, but they intended to be
under Italian protection."
The above is but one of
- dozens of tales which open a
new window on a hitherto
little-known chapter of the
life-saving protection afforded.
to the Jews by Italian.
military men, diplomats,
politicians and ordinary peo-
ple during the Holocaust.
They are told most effective-
ly in a new documentary film,
The Righteous Enemy.
Not everybody will see it.
When the film was offered for
showing on Israel television,
it was turned down on the
grounds that they had

enough Holocaust films to
last for the next two years —
oblivious of the fact that this
is a Holocaust picture of an
entirely different genre. In
New York, last fall, about 300
persons saw it at the 92nd
Street Y, and it was screened
once on New York's Channel
13.

Creator, director and pro-
ducer of the film, is 31-year-
old Joseph Rocklitz, who
studied cinema and composi-
tion at Tel Aviv University
and the Rubin Academy of
Music.
Rocklitz uses as a point of
departure the story of his own
father, now resident in New
York, who had been rescued
by the Italians in Croatia,
and develops the theme into
a detailed account of the
systematic Italian sabotage of
the Nazi Final Solution.
Mussolini, it appears, was
prepared to go along with the
Nazi demands that the Jews
be deported to the east, but of-
ficials on the lower levels
found ways of capitalizing on
bureaucratic procedures. Said
one of the principals,. Robert
Ducci: "The operation on our
part was to invent new forms
of reassuring the Germans
that we were doing
something, while we were do-
ing nothing."
There have been so many
books and films depicting the
horrors of the Nazi atrocities,
that it is a welcome change to
find one which can call atten-
tion to decent, humanitarian
people who, on a large scale,
were willing to challenge the
Nazis. Hard core Fascism was
indeed anti-semitic, but the
Italians as a people were not.
Serge Klarsfeld, one of
those interviewed, declares on
the basis of his own ex-
perience that at least 15,000
Jews in southern France owed
their lives to the Italian oc-
cupation there.

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