The Jewish Community of Florence, Italy
The Jewish community in Florence was established as early as the 15th century. At the end of the 1400s, Jews who had been expelled from Spain and Portugal also made their way there, and later on, Jews from the Mediterranean Basin, other areas of Italy and even Ethiopia immigrated to Florence. In 1938, some 2,500 Jews lived in the city. Fascist Italy was one of the Axis countries, and introduced antisemitic racial laws in 1938. In July 1943 Mussolini was dismissed by the King and arrested, but in September, Central and Northern Italy were occupied by Nazi Germany, and Mussolini established the Fascist Salò Republic in these territories, which collaborated with Germany.
The hunting down of Jews began in September. Jews who were caught were sent to camps in Italy and most of them were deported to Auschwitz. A comprehensive rescue network was set up in Florence, which worked in cooperation with the Church. The network helped many Jews from the city, as well as Jewish refugees who had escaped there from throughout Italy and from other countries. Despite all underground efforts and activities, hundreds of Jews were deported from Florence to the camps, where they were murdered.
The Pacifici Family
Mario Pacifici, scion of a family that had lived in Florence, Italy for hundreds of years was married to Gilda, and they had three children: Riccardo, Jiuditta and Fernando. When the children grew up, got married and had families of their own, they all left Florence and settled in different parts of the country.
Riccardo, the eldest, received rabbinical ordination in Florence, and from his mid-thirties served as Chief Rabbi of Genova. In 1939, Riccardo and his family obtained entry permits to Brazil, but didn't leave as Riccardo wouldn't abandon his community. In early November 1943 Riccardo was arrested in the synagogue; in December he was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where he was murdered. His wife, Wanda and their sons had left Genova prior to his arrest, and fled to Florence on hearing the news. Wanda went into hiding in a convent, and her sons, Emanuele and Raffaele were taken in by a religious Christian boys' school. A few days later, having been apprised by an informer, the Germans raided the convent and arrested the Jewish women being hidden there. Wanda was deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau, where she was murdered. The boys survived at the school under assumed identities.
Jiuditta Pacifici-Orvieto, her parents Mario and Gilda, her husband, Enrico and their children, Gualtiero, Giuliano and Natan, all survived in hiding, saved by priest Don Gaetano Tantalo in the village of Tagliacozzo in Central Italy.
Fernando, the youngest son, lived in Rome and owned a woolens factory. After all his attempts to leave Italy were unsuccessful, he decided to organize a hiding place for himself, and commissioned a table from a creative carpenter, with a secret compartment that could be locked from the inside. He placed the table in the home of the factory secretary. When the aktionen began in Rome and he had run out of refuge options, Fernando ran to the secretary's house and every time visitors came to call, he would hide inside the table. In this way, he survived until the end of the war.
