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Name:Notes #:Social Studies 8 Date:“My Italian Secret”The Forgotten Heroes of the Holocaustleft21336000MY ITALIAN SECRET: The Forgotten Heroes?is a feature length documentary that tells the story of courageous Italians, including sports idol Gino Bartali, who carried out ingenious schemes to rescue and protect Jews in Nazi-occupied Italy. Although Gino Bartali is a sports legend, his most daring triumph came when he risked his life countless times to save Jews threatened by Nazi extermination. The story of Bartali and the secret network of which he was a member, is just one example of the heroism exhibited by thousands of ordinary Italians who risked their lives to save others from capture and death. As an entire continent was engulfed in a genocide, which took the lives of most Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe (11 million people perished, including 6 million Jews), approximately 80 percent of Italy’s Jews survived. Bartali, like most of the rescuers, never sought recognition or reward. Few of those he helped knew his name or what role he played in their rescue. In addition to Gino Bartali, thousands of conscientious individual Italians risked their lives in order to assist people who in many cases were complete strangers. Most of these heroes never spoke of their courageous deeds.?MY ITALIAN SECRET?begs the question: Would you risk your life to save a stranger and then never talk about it?DOCUMENTARY CHARACTERS:left889000Gino Bartali?- Gino was a famous cyclist who risked his life to assist and shelter Jews under German occupation. He hid false papers in the frame of his bicycle and transported them from Cardinal Dalla Costa to the Bishop of Assisi where Jews found sanctuary.left63500Charolette Hauptmann?- Charlotte returned to Italy with her grandson because she wanted him to know her story. Charlotte’s family left Germany in 1938 after Kristallnacht, and she was born in Italy. The family lived in Milan for approximately two years, and then they were sent to the Ferramonti internment camp.left419400Ursula Korn Selig?- Ursula is a German Jew who went to Italy with her family in 1935. She and her family were protected by Monsignor Schivo who hid her father in the countryside. Ursula and her mother were dressed as nuns and lived in a convent.left381000Gaia Servidio?- Gaia’s father was a successful Director in a factory in Padua and was well respected in Italian society. Once the Racial Laws were enacted, her father lost his position not only in the factory but also in Italian society. Gaia’s nanny had a friend who warned the family of danger, and they fled.left-127000Piero Terracina?- Piero described how at first his family was able to hide in Rome. However, when his sister rebuked an Italian man, he betrayed them, and the entire family was sent to Auschwitz.left-317500Dr. Giovanni Borromeo?- Dr. Borromeo was director of a hospital in Rome. He invented a mythical disease called “K” to deceive the Germans and save Jews. He hid Jews in the hospital and told the Germans that there was a very contagious and incurable disease called “K” in the hospital, which resulted in the Germans deciding not to enter the hospital.right965900 THE HOLOCAUST - The Holocaust was a systematic attempt to eliminate all the Jews in Europe. The official beginning is considered to be Kristallnacht, the Night of the Broken Glass, November 9-10, 1938. The pogrom was state sponsored and directed against Jews. During this time, 91 Jews were murdered, 30,000 Jewish men were arrested and sent to concentration camps, hundreds of Jewish synagogues were torched and 7,000 Jewish businesses were looted. The beginning of this tragedy was crystallized by Adolf Hitler’s authoring of?Mein Kampf?prior to his coming to power. In this book, Hitler focused on his philosophy of the “Master Race”, and he considered the Germans to be the purest form of this: the Aryan race. In addition, he saw the Jew as evil and the destroyer of German culture and economy. As a result, he believed the state had only one purpose which was to insure the purity of the Aryan race and eliminate the Jew from German life. The views expressed in?Mein Kampf?would become the Nazi bible and lead to the ultimate goal of creating a Europe free of Jews.?left825500 A weak German Republic coupled with the demands of the World War I treaty and an economic depression created a unique opportunity for Hitler to gain political power. He was supported by industrialists and bankers who feared a Communist revolution. They saw him as a savior for the country’s problems. He utilized democracy to eventually have himself appointed Chancellor in 1933. Within a few months, he assumed greater power and democracy ends. Hitler was now free to pursue his anti-Semitic policies.?In September 1935, the Nuremberg Laws created second-class status for Jews, and they were no longer considered citizens. They were dismissed from the civil service, the professions and the universities. Jewish children could no longer attend German public schools. Marriage was forbidden between Jews and non-Jewish Germans. At this early stage, the government allowed Jews to leave the country, but many nations restricted Jewish immigration. The Jews who could emigrate, including Albert Einstein, left Germany. Jews who remained in Germany lived in fear of imprisonment. By 1938, the plight of the Jews in Germany, and eventually Austria, was well known throughout the world.left6302200President Roosevelt called for an international conference to offer refuge to hundreds of thousands of Jews from Germany and Austria for humanitarian reasons. The meeting was held in Evian, France in July of 1938. The delegates expressed sympathy for the Jews but made excuses for their countries refusal to accept any Jewish refugees. The conference showed that forced emigration of Jews from Nazi Germany was unworkable, thus another solution for the Reich’s “Jewish Problem” would have to be found. This conference would eventually doom the Jews of Europe. The Nazis were convinced that the Jews had no value and the world was indifferent to their fate.?45262809207500On September 1, 1939, World War II began with the German invasion of Poland. The Germans established a ghetto policy which forced the Jews of Poland, Austria and Germany to be imprisoned in a walled off section of a city. The ghettos were crowded, and the inhabitants were prone to disease due to poor sanitation and a lack of food. The Nazis hoped that the inhabitants would starve or die from disease. Hitler continued his expansionist policy by invading Russia in June of 1941. With the increased number of Jews from Eastern Europe, it was decided to use firing squads made up of many local people to murder the Jews under their control in the new territories. The Nazis considered this method inefficient and decided that a new plan had to be devised.?left-190500In January of 1942, Nazi officials met at Wannasee, near Berlin. Their task was to create an efficient method to murder Jews. They decided to create extermination centers and use gas chambers and crematoriums to solve the problem. Auschwitz, Treblinka, Sobibor, Chelmno, Belzec and Majdanek death camps were created in Poland. A railroad system was created to transport Jews to these camps to be murdered. At one time, Auschwitz murdered 10,000 Jews a day. Eventually, these camps were incorporated into the Nazi terror network, which was responsible for the extermination of 6 million Jews and an additional 5 million non-Jews, all victims of the Holocaust. Resistance to the Nazi terror policy was virtually impossible.?45421557239000In 1943, the first major uprising against Nazi rule in Europe occurred in the Warsaw Ghetto. A thousand men and women resisted deportation with an armed revolt. Jewish fighters resisted with hand grenades, pistols, homemade bombs and a few captured rifles. In Treblinka, approximately 800 inmates participated in an uprising. In Sobibor, 600 inmates attempted to escape, 200 escaped into the forest. This was the largest mass escape of World War II. Prisoners from Auschwitz revolted and destroyed a crematorium. In addition, thousands of Jewish men and women fought the Nazis in Eastern Europe as partisans. Despite being occupied, Denmark saved almost all of their 7,000 Jews. Italy, while under German occupation, was able to save approximately 80% of their 40,000 Jews. Even with the indifference to the plight of the Jews, there were many who put their lives and the lives of their families in jeopardy to save Jews from extermination because it was the “right thing to do”. The Holocaust did not have to happen. Had more people refused to carry out the murder of the Jews or refused to collaborate with those involved in such atrocities, the Holocaust could have been prevented or at the very least mitigated. Every individual had freedom of action and could choose between good, apathy and evil. The witness to history accounts on this website and in the documentary focus on the choices individual Italians made to save the lives of Jews. If people are not indifferent, things can be different.left25100ITALIAN RACIAL LAWS - Anti-Semitism was not a major concern of the Italian people in modern Italy until Mussolini introduced it. Mussolini combined anti-Semitism and racism to form the Fascist racial policy.right171667300After Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933, Mussolini felt threatened by Hitler’s designs on Austria. Mussolini considered himself the protector of Austria and intended to resist German expansion into the region. In order to placate Hitler, while still thwarting his ambition, Mussolini decided to develop an anti-Semitic campaign in Italy. When the Nazis assassinated the Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss in July 1934, Hitler decided to take no further action in order to avoid a conflict with the European powers. Mussolini believed that the German threat was thus removed, therefore, there was no longer a need for any anti-Semitic program at this time. It wasn’t until 1936 that Mussolini re-instituted his anti-Semitic policies due to the political and economic conditions confronting Italy. One of these conditions was Mussolini’s incursion into Ethiopia. Mussolini became concerned with the increase of interracial fraternization with the Ethiopian people and its effect on Italy. Racism now increasingly became an issue in Italy, and Mussolini seized upon this growing trend to promote his racial propaganda. The Ethiopian War and Italy’s involvement in the Spanish Civil War resulted in Italy being isolated by the western powers. As a result, Mussolini decided to develop a greater friendship with Hitler. He believed that Hitler would be impressed and willing to ally himself with Italy if anti-Semitic racial laws were instituted in Italy.Mussolini mobilized the press and radio broadcasts to further galvanize support for his anti-Semitic propaganda which constantly bombarded the Italian people causing some to adhere to his hatred of Jews. In addition, on July 14, 1938 he embraced the “Manifesto of the Racial Scientist”, which stated that the civilization of Italy is of Aryan origin, and there exists a pure Italian race to which Jews do not belong. This Manifesto was false and dishonest but was utilized to justify the racial laws. 51130202095500Between September 2, 1938 and November 17, 1938, Italy enacted a series of racial laws. Some of these laws included the following:Foreign Jews were forbidden to settle in Italy, Libya or in the colonial possessions of the Aegean.The Italian citizenship granted to Jewish foreigners after January 1,1919 was revoked, and they were required to leave within six months.Jews were banned from jobs in the government, banking, insurance, education, entertainment industry and the practice of law.Jews were banned from attending all education institutions.Marriage was prohibited between Jews and non-Jews.Jewish property was confiscated.Jewish businesses were “Aryanized” (Jewish businesses confiscated by non-Jews).All foreign Jews were required to leave Italy.Jews were forbidden to employ non-Jewish Italian domestics.Jews were forbidden to serve in the military.A special Jewish census conducted in 1938 and continually updated facilitated the future arrests of thousands.While thousands of foreign Jews were expelled as a result of these racial laws, they were replaced by thousands of Jewish refugees escaping harsh circumstances in their native lands. Since some individual Italians were basically suspicious of government and lax in following rules, not everyone complied with enforcing the racial laws that they believed were unjust.left4570200Those who followed their conscience and resisted the unjust treatment of Jews did so at great personal risk to themselves and their families. This resistance took many forms. Some Italian Jews transferred businesses and other sources of wealth to trusted Christian friends for safe keeping. In addition, there were Jewish lawyers who continued servicing non-Jewish clients with the assistance of non-Jewish attorneys. Other examples of non-compliance included those bankers who overlooked or ignored Jewish bank accounts thereby protecting their assets from being confiscated.In spite of Mussolini’s efforts to rid Italy of Jews, individual Italians not only helped to protect Jewish property but also rescued Jews from certain death by offering them a safe haven from those who planned to murder them. Some Italians made the decision to protect their Jewish friends and neighbors as a matter of conscience. As a result, approximately 80% of Italy’s Jews survived the Holocaust.While Italy’s racial laws were harsh and unjust, after Germany invaded Italy on September 8, 1943, conditions worsened for the Jews and survival became the only issue due to the threat of Nazi deportation. What occurred in Italy during the Holocaust is a multi-faceted and complex piece of history that must be examined within the context of the time period.Directions:You will need to READ, HIGHLIGHT, and ANNOTATE for this assignment. All questions must be answered or will receive a ZERO. You do not need to restate your answers. This assignment will be COLLECT & GRADED.What is the documentary “My Italian Secret” about?About what percentage of Italy’s Jews survived the Holocaust?Briefly explain the importance of the following people:Gino Bartali:Charolette Hauptmann:Ursula Korn Selig:Gaia Servidio:Piero Terracina:Dr. Giovanni Borromeo:What is considered the official beginning of the Holocaust? Explain what happened during this event?What was Adolf Hitler’s book Mein Kampf about?How did Adolf Hitler rise to power in Germany?What effect did the Nuremberg Laws have on Jews?Explain the ghetto policy for Jews in Poland, Austria, and Germany.What resulted from the meeting of Nazi officials in Wannasee?What happened during the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto?How did Mussolini use anti-Semitism in Italy?How did Mussolini try to ally himself with Hitler?What was the “Manifesto of the Racial Scientist”?Explain SIX different racial laws in Italy:How did individual Italians help the Jews in Italy? ................
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