IMPROBABLE HEROES — Carl L. Steinhouse

Jews in Italy flourished under Mussolini's reign until the late thirties, when Hitler was approaching the apex of his power and Mussolini, now recognized as a vainglorious, pompous and strutting leader who liked to go to war but had no idea how to conduct one, now became the junior partner in the Axis relationship. He then sought to ingratiate himself with the führer by copying Hitler's anti-Semitic programs and laws. However, unlike the German citizens and clergy, the majority of Italians would not only refuse to participate in the persecution of the Jews, they would actively protect their Jewish brethren from Nazi attempts to exterminate them. Improbable Heroes is the true story of how most of the Italian Jews -- and foreign Jews who had fled to Italy from the Nazi onslaught in other parts of Europe -- were saved by extraordinary acts of bravery by improbable heroes -- ordinary Italians and the clergy.
Improbable Heroes explores how the plans of Vatican to condemn the Nazi persecution of the Jews were derailed by the untimely death of Pope Pius XI and the ambivalence of his successor, Pope Pius XII, fearful for his fellow Catholics in Germany, to speak out against the Germans; yet he permitted the aggressive efforts of his Church, especially the cardinals, and bishops who ordered, sometimes in the name of the pope, all Catholic clergy -- priests, nuns and monks -- to assist Jews and hide them.
It traces two Jewish families of an Austrian tailor and a Czech doctor. Each escaped their respective homelands, finding their way to Italy via Croatia and Yugoslavia, with the help of the Italian soldiers of occupation, who protected these Jews from the Germans and the equally anti-Semitic Croats. It also traces the terror experienced by Italian Jewish families, routed out of their homes by the Nazis for extermination, and how Italian citizens and clergy conspired to frustrate German attempts to find most of those Jews.
Following the German takeover of Northern Italy after the overthrow of Mussolini, ominous warnings fell on deaf ears for some Jewish leaders who urged their people not to go into hiding and “provoke” the Germans. Other Jewish leaders, however, saw what would happen and worked feverishly with the Catholic clergy to set up procedures to hide, disguise and spirit Jews out of the danger areas -- Catholic and Jewish artisans worked together to counterfeit false papers, baptismal certificates and ration cards; Jews were hidden in convents, churches and abbeys. Gentle monks from St. Francis of Assisi escorted Jewish “pilgrims” through German lines to safety.
The Germans, furious at being unable to round up large numbers of Jews, committed atrocities against Italian citizens and clergy. Told is the heart-wrenching story of the Jew, Attilio Nathan, and his young son, Michele, who escaped the earlier roundup only to be captured after being turned in by an informant for a 5000 lire reward; how they and other Jews were massacred by the SS on the outskirts of Rome; and how some Jews were fingered for the reward by a young Jewess dubbed the “Black Panther.”
The story traces the terrifying experiences of several Jewish families, Italian and non-Italian, who dodged the Gestapo, traveled under false papers and dress, and were hidden by brave priests and nuns, who faced down the Nazi occupiers. Thus, many families were able to escape to Allied territory while others, with the connivance of the bishops and monks were hidden right under the nose of the SS; how an Austrian Jewess, posing as a nun and speaking native German, shamed Gestapo agents thus saving priests, nuns and children from execution; how Italian physicists fled Europe, taking nuclear research to the United States; and how Jews joined up with local partisans and ultimately, with the Jewish Brigade from Palestine, to fight the Germans.
As a result, over 85% of the Jews in Italy survived, a rate unmatched in any other German-occupied European country. This, then, is their proud story.