Sicilian Jews and the Holocaust

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Italy

The Archbishop of Milan, Cardinal Schuster, who had supported Amici Israel,[12] condemned racism as heresy and aninternational danger (...) not lesser than bolshevism in his 13 November 1938 homily at Milan Cathedral.[13]

After Italy entered the war in 1940 Jewish refugees living in Italy were interned in concentration camps such as theCampagna concentration camp and the concentration camp at Ferramonti di Tarsia. In 1942 the Italian military commander in Croatia refused to hand over Jews in his zone to the Nazis. In January 1943 the Italians refused to cooperate with the Nazis in rounding up the Jews living in the occupied zone of France under their control and in March prevented the Nazis from deporting Jews in their zone. German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop complained to Benito Mussolini that "Italian military circles... lack a proper understanding of the Jewish question."

The deportations of Italian Jews to Nazi death camps began after September 1943, when Italy capitulated to the Allies and, in response, the German troops invaded Italy from the North. However, by the time they got to the Campagna concentration camp, all the inmates had already fled to the mountains with the help of the local inhabitants. Rev. Aldo Brunacci of Assisi, under the direction of his bishop, Giuseppe Nicolini, saved all the Jews who sought refuge in Assisi. This effort became the basis for the novel The Assisi Underground. In October 1943, Nazis raided the Jewish ghetto in Rome. In November 1943, the Jews of Genoa and Florence were deported to Auschwitz. Jews of Friuli were deported to Auschwitz via Risiera di San Sabbaconcentration camp. It is estimated that 7,500 Italian Jews became victims of the Holocaust.

Jews after the war

It is estimated that about 75–80% of the Italian Jews survived the Holocaust.[15] About seven thousand Jews out of forty-six thousand perished in the concentration camps. The surviving community however was able to maintain its distinctiveness and played a significant role in the following years, in the fields of politics, literature, science and industry. Writers such asGiorgio Bassani, Natalia Ginzburg and Primo Levi were among the leading figures of the Italian culture in the post-war years.

The size of the Italian Jewish community has faced a slight but continuous drop throughout the postwar decades, partly because of emigration to Israel or the Usa, partly because of low birthrates. A limited increase occurred during the 70's due to the arrival of Iranian Jews and North African Jews.