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some Italians freely turned in
their Jewish neighbors, most
worked in opposition to the Nazis
to save Jews by falsifying pass-
ports, harboring Jews in their
homes or working to get Jews out
of the country and into safer ar-
eas.
She said the active opposition

A Shared Past

A conference on the Holocaust in southern
Europe draws a mixed crowd.

JILL DAVIDSON SKLAR STAFF WRITER

lena Rosner recalled how kill the Jews."
Ms. Rosnefs comments were
good life had been for Italian
Jews before the Holocaust a part of the conference spon-
ripped through the Euro- sored by the National Italian
American Foundation, Italy,
pean community.
"My father and uncle were in Italy magazine and the Holo-
the army. My father had friends caust Memorial Center. About
who were clergymen," she said 150 Jews and Italians attend-
last week at a conference on the ed the afternoon event, which
Holocaust in southern Europe. "I featured survivors' testimony,
attended the schools and was ex- speakers, a panel discussion
cused during catechism and nev- involving religious leaders, ed-
er once was made to feel ucation and cultural repre-
sentatives. The film The
uncomfortable."
But as the oppression of the Righteous Enemy was also
Jews began to be felt in her home- shown.
The purpose of the confer-
town, Ms. Rosner relied on the
kindness of neighbors to shield her ence is to build relations be-
from the murderous Nazis by tak- tween the Italian and Jewish
ing her and her siblings into their communities, similar events
homes, a crime punishable by have been held in nearly 20
death. She also feels her survival American cities this year.
Giorgio Sonnino escaped from Italy before
"The most significant out- Jewish
is due to dictator Benito Mussoli-
restrictions were enforced.
ni not pushing for the annihila- come of the conference is good
resulted
in the survival of 85 pe-
will,"
said
Dr.
Maria
Lombardo,
tion of the Jews.
"For that I am grateful. I would the moderator of the conference cent of Jewry present in pre-war
not be here today if Mussolini had and the daughter of a Nazi labor Italy and 10,000 Jews who fled to
Italy from other countries.
killed the Jews," she said. "He was camp survivor.
`The Italians were sympathet-
Dr. Lombardo said that while
a nasty [expletive], but he did not

is not only to their own Jews but
to foreign Jews as well," she
said.
Dora Langnes of West Bloom-

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field, an audience member,
attested to Dr. Lombardo's state-
ments. As a survivor who escaped
from Austria to Italy, she was able
to make it through the war with
the help of the Italians.
'We would not have survived in
my hometown, but we survived in
Italy," she said.

: T r,

CELEBRATE OUR
ANNIVERSARIES

Rabbi Leonardo Bitran considers an
audience question.

The panel discussion followed
the survivors' testimony and in-
cluded Rabbi Leonardo Bitran of
Congregation Shaarey Zedek
B'nai Israel Center in West
Bloomfield, the Rev. Jim Hol-
ley of Little Rock Baptist
Church in Detroit, West
Bloomfield Schools Superin-
tendent Seymour Gretchko
and Martin Reno Garagiola of
the Italian American Cultur-
al Center.
Rabbi Bitran, fresh from a
trip to Poland and Israel as a
part of the March of the Liv-
ing, told the audience in the
Jewish Community Center's
Aaron DeRoy Theatre that
moral neutrality or passivity
is immoral.
'The stories we have heard
here are those of people who
helped others," he said. 'We
have learned that we must not
remain passive when an issue
of this nature happens before
our eyes."
The Rev. Holley reinforced
the idea.
`°The value of life is still so cheap
in this country, and people just
don't care what is happening to
people all over the world," he said.
Dr. Lombardo said the Nation-
al Italian American Foundation is
sponsoring a scholarship to those
interested in studying the Italian
response to the Holocaust. ❑

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in this issue of
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