The Holocaust in Italy

Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 23. Chapters: Primo Levi, Martin Sandberger, Erich Priebke, Stolperstein, Pope Pius XII and the Roman razzia, Herbert Kappler, Otto Wächter, Lorenz Hackenholt, Giovanni Preziosi, Theodor Dannecker, Armadio della vergogna, Michael Seifert, Leonardo de Benedetti, Museo della Deportazione. Excerpt: Primo Michele Levi (pronounced ; July 31, 1919 ¿ April 11, 1987) was an Italian Jewish chemist and writer. He was the author of two novels and several collections of short stories, essays, and poems, but is best known for If This Is a Man, his account of the year he spent as a prisoner in the Auschwitz concentration camp in Nazi-occupied Poland. He was an atheist. Levi was born in Turin at Corso Re Umberto 75 into a liberal Jewish family. His father Cesare worked for the manufacturing firm Ganz and spent much of his time working abroad in Hungary, where Ganz was based. Cesare was an avid reader and autodidact. Levi¿s mother Ester, known to everyone as Rina, was well educated, having attended the . She too was an avid reader, played the piano and spoke fluent French. The marriage between Rina and Cesare was arranged by Rinäs father. On their wedding day, Rinäs father, Cesare Luzzati, gave Rina the apartment at where Primo Levi was to live for almost his entire life. In 1921 Anna Maria, Levi's sister was born; he was to remain close to her all of his life. In 1925 he entered the primary school in Turin. A thin and delicate child, he was shy and thought of himself as being ugly, but he excelled academically. His school record includes long periods of absence during which time he was tutored at home at first by Emilia Glauda and then by Marisa Zini, daughter of philosopher Zino Zini. Summers were spent with his mother in the Waldensian valleys south-west of Turin where Rina rented a farmhouse. His father remained in Turin partly because of his dislike of the rural life, but also because of his infidelities. In September 1930 he entered the Royal Gymnasium a year ahead of normal entrance requirements. In class he was the youngest, the shortest and the cleverest as well as being the only Jew. For these reasons, he was bullied. In August 1932, following two years at the Talmud Torah school in Turin, he sang in the local synagogue for his Bar Mitzvah. In 1933, as was expe