Nonantola Children

Villa Emma, Nonantola / Nonantola Children (see Holocaust Children Studies)

Overview

The Nonantola Children were the 73 Jewish children from Central Europe hosted at Villa Emma in Nonantola in 1942-43. After the Nazis occupied Italy in Sept 1943, all the children were hidden with the help of the local population, until they were able to flee illegally to Switzerland.

In the afternoon of July 17th, 1942, a group of forty young Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria arrived at the Nonantola railway station. They were accompanied by nine adults.

{The approximately 40 children and youths who came to Villa Emma in July 1942 were from Germany and Austria.} Most of them came from Berlin, others came from Frankfurt, Leipzig, Hamburg, Vienna, and Graz. Almost all of them were orphans or their closest relatives had been arrested after the »Kristallnacht« in November 1938. Several of the children came from families who had immigrated from Poland and had thus been subjected to even harsher persecution beginning 1933.

There were originally directed to Palestine. On April 6th, 1941 they had been held up in Zagreb by the German invasion. From there, led by Josef Indig and thanks to a special authorization of the Italian Ministery of Interior, they moved to Slovenia, where they lived for one year, in Lesno Brdo. When fightings reached them, they were forced to leave, once again.

Then, an Italian Jewish organization, known as Delasem (Delegazione Assistenza Emigranti Ebrei) found an ideal place to lodge the young refugees. It was a long time unhabitated mansion in Nonantola, called Villa Emma.

On April 14, 1943, 33 more boys and girls from the Croatian city of Split arrived at Villa Emma. Most of their families were incarcerated or had been murdered at camps which had been set up by the National Socialist occupiers or the fascist Ustaša regime in Croatia.

On April 10th, 1943, thirty-three other Jewish boys and girls joined the original group. They arrived from Split, accompanied by Yakov Maestro and had managed to flee from Bosnia and Croatia. Like the first group, they could count on an official authorization. Overall, they were younger than those already housed at Villa Emma. This fact, alongside language differences, resulted in a somehow complicated relation between the two groups.

It was quite difficult and expensive to supply with food such a large group of people, in a period of food rationing. Black market turned out to be an inevitable option. Luckily, the refugees could count on supplies coming directly from the rural environment they lived in. From time to time they starved, although their leaders managed to skillfully obtain commodities.

When the young refugees arrived in Nonantola, they found themselves in a rural context. This greatly differed from their places of origin, as far as mentality and material conditions. Nonantola is a countryside village, not far from Modena. In 1942, it counted 10.746 inhabitants, many of them living in nearby hamlets. Agricolture was the main occupation and it employed around 80% of the active population. Professionals, including members of the clergy and school teachers, were about thirty people.

Upon closer examination, the Villa Emma young refugees were a mixed and varied group, with regard to age and gender: thirty-four girls and thirty-nine boys. There were thirteen children, males and females, ranging between the age of six and twelve. Forty-two adolescents between thirteen and seventeen and eighteen young men and young women between eighteen and twenty-one.

The idea of attending the Jewish School in Modena was soon discarded. Around the middle of October 1942, various courses were organized at the Villa: four classes for each age level. The youths studied Music, Literature, History, Philosophy, Anthropology, Judaism, Sionism and Modern Hebrew. Moreover, they learned Italian. It was also decided to keep a school register: class attendance was compulsory. On the other hand, students were free to decide about taking an exam.

To support their school activities, the students could count on a rich library. Its core was made of books they had brought along from Lesno Brdo. Other book, mostly in German, were later added thanks to the Delasem organization. There were also music scores for piano and singing, some records and a grammophone. In addition to classes, they were trained in agricultural works and handicrafts, under the guidance of peasants and craftsmen from Nonantola.

Soon, however there were contrasts concerning the organization of cultural activities. Umberto Jacchía, the director nominated by Delasem, would have liked more time to be devoted to Jewish traditions and Italian literature. Indig, a young Sionist activist, with lay and Socialist leanings, did not agree: “It is a farce, if you consider that this group of youths reached by chance Fascist Italy, while it should be prepared to its future life in Palestine!” (J. Indig).

Any discussion with Jacchía was hopeless. The Italian Jews who lived at Villa Emma, where the Delasem organization had also moved its warehouse, were worried. At some point every exit from the Villa had to be authorized in writing by the director, Umberto Jacchía. Then, especially the older refugees, began to go to the village “covertly”, and came back with the feeling they had won a challenge.

At first there were also other problems and reasons of bewilderment that affected both the young refugees and the static and witdrawn local society. Both the refugees and the inhabitants of Nonantola had encountered people who were quite distant from their imagination. There were language differences, different lifestyles and mentalities. These young refugees, who came from far away, spoke various languages and quickly learned Italian. They aroused the curiosity of the local population because they belonged to another and unknown world. Moreover, they did not fall within the usual judgement benchmarks of the local people. These facts, however did not contrast the positive dynamics of good reception.

Indig realized that in Nonantola only a few joined Fascism. Those few ones did it “for more or less practical reasons” (J. Indig). This especially because in the area the regime showed the petit bourgeois and apparatchik face of Carlo Zanni, a lawyer who was podestà from 1930 to 1943.

Josef Indig, Don Arrigo Beccari, Giuseppe Moreali (1964) Josef Indig, Don Arrigo Beccari, Giuseppe Moreali (1964)

For the young refugees of Villa Emma, war seemed far away until the summer of 1943. On July 25th, the people in Nonantola and in other places, celebrated the fall of Mussolini. Despite the fact that Marshal Badoglio, the new Chief of the Government, declared: “War continues”.

In August, as a precaution, the adults responsible for the Villa Emma group, asked the local authorities for new identity papers. They were issued without the note “belonging to Jewish race”.

On September 8th, everything changed. When the Armistice with the Anglo-Americans was announced, those who were responsible for the group immediately asked Giuseppe Moreali for help. He was the local physician. In the previous months he had weaved meaningful relations with the Villa Emma community. They were all aware the situation was getting dangerous and they had to find hiding places for the young refugees. The Villa was not a safe place anymore.

Doctor Moreali thought the best solution was to turn to don Arrigo Beccari and ask for his help. He was the treasurer of the Seminary annexed to Nonantola Abbey. With the permission of the Rector, mons. Ottaviano Pelati, he offered hospitality for some nights to a wide number of boys in the seminarists’ rooms.

When the German soldiers entered in Nonantola, the next morning, September 9th, Villa Emma had been abandoned. The largest part of the group was hiding in the Seminary. The others had been welcomed by numerous local families.

The young refugees, however, could not hide any longer in Nonantola. The possibility of a Nazi roundup was more and more realistic. Their new identity papers allowed them to pass unscathed German Feldgendarmerie and Italian police controls. The initial idea to take the group to the South of Italy and meet the Allied forces, soon waned. Only some of the elder youths went South. At that point, Switzerland became the only alternative.

They youths and their leaders left Nonantola divided in three groups, between October 6th and 16th, 1943 and reached Switzerland adventurously. After the first attempts to cross the border that ended with rejection, our young refugees managed to get in touch with the Jewish organization in Switzerland. They interceded with the Swiss authorities.

The young refugees finally found shelter in Switzerland. After a period they spent in different refugee camps, the members of the group met again at Villa des Bains, near Bex. After the war, almost all of them sailed from Barcelona to Palestine, where they arrived on May 29th, 1945.

Everyone was safe, except for Salomon Papo and Goffredo Pacifici. Salomon, fifteen years old, had reached Nonantola with the group from Split. Ill with tubercolosis, he was sent to the sanatorium in Gaiato di Pavullo and could not follow the rest of the group on its way to Switzerland. He was arrested in March 1944 and his name is listed among deportees from Fossoli to Auschwitz, with the April 5th train. Goffredo Pacifici, a Delasem official, lived at Villa Emma and led the youths, when they fled to Switzerland. Having reached the Swiss border, he decided to remain on the Italian side, to help other Jews to cross onto the safe side. He was later arrested with his brother by the Fascist militia, and deported to Auschwitz, where he died.

A spectacular example of the organizational capacity of the DELASEM relates to the saving of the children of Villa Emma at Nonantola. Due to the efforts of Father Arrigo Beccari and Giuseppe Moreali, in less than 36 hours upon arrival of the Germans in September 1943, more than a hundred residents of the DELASEM orphanage were hidden among the families of the area and subsequently transferred illegally to Switzerland. Only one of them, Salomon Papo, who was sick and had been entrusted to a sanatorium, was captured and died at Auschwitz. The book Fields of the Duce: the civilian internment in Fascist Italy (1930–1943), by Charles Spartacus Capogreco, details this escape, and 2004 television movie The Flight of the Innocents was made by European station RAI.

Book : Tutti salvi (2002)

• Monica Debbia, Marzia Luppi, Tutti salvi. La vicenda dei ragazzi ebrei di Villa Emma, Nonantola 1942 – 1943 (Comune di Nonantola, Istituto storico di Modena, Edizioni Artestampa, Modena 2002).

Quaderno didattico che prende spunto dalla vicenda dei ragazzi di Villa Emma per affrontare il vasto tema del secondo conflitto mondiale inteso come “grande contenitore di storie”, passando dal contesto locale ad una prospettiva di storia europea. Ricco di documenti di varia tipologia, organizzati in percorsi tematici; si presenta come uno strumento utile al laboratorio di storia ... La vicenda di Villa Emma - una grande casa padronale a Nonantola, nei pressi di Modena, dove fu nascosto e aiutato a fuggire un gruppo di ragazzi ebrei - è un episodio della seconda guerra mondiale che può considerarsi simbolico della solidarietà che tanta parte della popolazione civile seppe dimostrare agli ebrei perseguitati dai nazifascisti. Le autrici hanno costruito con questo testo uno strumento di lavoro ricco e approfondito, che nelle tre sezioni Perseguitati, In fuga e Villa Emma - ripercorre le fasi essenziali dell'episodio, mettendo chiaramente in luce i rapporti tra la singola vicenda e la grande storia."--Publisher description <Italian>

Book :

• Ombretta Piccinini, Klaus Voigt, I ragazzi ebrei di Villa Emma a Nonantola (Comune di Nonantola, Archivio storico comunale, 2002).

Catalogo della mostra esposta permanentemente a Nonantola e itinerante in Italia e in Europa; costituisce l’apparato iconografico del volume di Klaus Voigt. Permette di attribuire un volto ai protagonisti della vicenda di Villa Emma, di ricostruire le tappe del lungo viaggio e di cogliere aspetti della vita quotidiana nel corso degli anni in fuga.

Book : (2004)

• Josef Indig Ithai, Anni in fuga. I ragazzi di Villa Emma a Nonantola, a cura di Klaus Voigt (Giunti, Firenze-Milano 2004).

Costituisce l’unica testimonianza che abbraccia l’arco complessivo della vicenda dei ragazzi ebrei arrivati a Nonantola nel 1942 e poi fuggiti, nell’autunno del 1943, alla volta della Svizzera. Redatto dall’autore, educatore-accompagnatore del gruppo da Zagabria fino alla salvezza e all’arrivo in Palestina, è stato poi rielaborato in anni successivi. Il curatore, Klaus Voigt, ha condotto una ricognizione sulle diverse redazioni del testo.

Book : (2007)

• Maria Laura Marescalchi, Anna Maria Ori, Nonantola e i salvati di Villa Emma. Una guida per la scuola e per i visitatori (Quid Edizioni, Nonantola 2007)

Strumento agile che si propone di offrire gli elementi fondamentali per conoscere una storia e un luogo, unendo alle esigenze della divulgazione il rigore delle informazioni storiche. Il testo offre stimoli e prospettive di approfondimento sia a insegnanti e studenti, sia a quanti visitano i luoghi nonantolani legati alla vicenda. La guida è corredata da una significativa rassegna di immagini e documenti, 11 profili biografici e una cronologia comparata.

THe Children

Jakob Altaras guided a group of 33 refugee children to Villa Emma, near Nonantola, Italy, by ship to Trieste and then by train via Venice and Bologna in April 1943. The copy print depicts the refugee children, Jakob Altaras (top right corner, between the door and window), and additional members of the Jewish community of Split including Rabbi Avraham Altaras (to Jakob’s left, next to the shutter), Jachiel Kamchi (below Avraham), Marcus Finzi (far right, below the window), Vittorio Morpurgo (top center), Iso Hermann (to Morpurgo’s left), and Moritz Levi (to Morpugo’s right). When Germany began occupying Italy in September 1943, the monks of the nearby Nonantola Abbey helped the children reach Switzerland, and all survived. The children are identified as Sarina Attias, Moritz Attias, Lea Altarac, Ella Atarac, Buni Altarac, Lezo Altarac, Albert Albahari, Josef Danon, Sarina Brodski, Moric Danon, Reli Gaon, Zlata Gaon, Tina Gaon, Bela Grof, Velimri Halpern, Marcel Hoffmann, Lotica Israel, Sida Israel, Albi Israel, Lezo Kaweson, Flora Kajon, Leone Kajon, Aron Koen, Rikica Levi, Leone Levi, Sida Levi, Charlotte Markus, Israel Maestro, Jokov Maestro, Giuseppe Papo, Danko Sternberg, Zdenko Schmidt, and Nelli Schlesinger

• Ursula Karger

Nasce a Berlino il 21 (o il 28) gennaio 1927, the daughter of Artur Karger and Gertrud. Nel 1941 risulta internata a Lesno Brdo presso Lubiana (Slovenia) e in seguito a Villa Emma a Nonantola; è assistita dalla Delegazione per l'assistenza agli emigranti ebrei (Delasem) di Giorgio Nissim.