Stateless: A Russian Childhood in Fascist Italy
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Written by Marita Dresner
Original in English
This reminiscence covers my childhood years in Italy during Fascism and up to emigrating in 1939. It is based on my archive of family letters and other material, and on my own memories of growing up. The full archive spans three generations and continents, from the end of the 19th century through the 20th. The correspondence consists of around 1,500 letters.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
"I found in Marita Dresner a living treasure: a woman who has lived a full and adventuresome life and preserved it with formidable memory, sense of humor, and critical insight," Alessandro Cassin.
INQUIRIES
Stateless: A Russian Childhood in Fascist Italy currently hasn’t been written yet. Marita Dresner is working with a collection of notes, research and diary entries to create this piece. Contact us if you’re interested in sponsoring this book (donating towards its writing, production and translation), or if you’re interested in publishing opportunities for the book.
UNAVOIDABLE HOPE
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Written by Roger Sabbadini
Original in English
2017
Unavoidable Hope is a biography of an Italian Jewish refugee, Alessandro (Alex) Sabbadini, who escaped Fascist Italy to America on the eve of WWII, only to return and fight in Italy as a G-2 Intelligence officer with the U.S. 5th Army. He was in the fight for personal reasons – to liberate Italy and his Jewish family who were being pursued by the Fascists and the Nazis. For several agonizing years, Alex did not know the fate of his family and they, in turn, did not know he was a U.S. soldier.
The story of the Sabbadini family and, in particular, Alex Sabbadini’s quest to discover their fate, is not told in a chronological order but dramatically begins with the January 22, 1944 invasion of Italy at the seaside towns of Anzio and Nettuno when Alex landed 200 yards in front of the Sabbadini summer villa. In one of the great fiascoes of the war, the Allies became trapped in a small strip of beachhead with their backs to the sea, facing 120,000 German troops who thwarted the Allies’ plan to capture Rome and Alex’s ability to reunite with his family. Anzio/Nettuno was only 40 miles from Rome where the fate of Alex’s family would eventually be discovered some four torturous months later. During the stalemate at Anzio, flashbacks reveal the life of Jews in Rome before the Fascist racial laws. Alex also reflects on the difficulties of immigrating to the U.S. as well as his experiences in the battles for North Africa and Sicily.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Roger Sabbadini is an Emeritus Professor at San Diego State University. He received his Ph.D. at the University of California, Davis. Dr. Sabbadini is the eldest son of Alex Sabbadini, the subject of this biography. Dr. Sabbadini has lectured internationally and has been an invited or a keynote speaker at many international conferences. He has presented his father’s WWII story to numerous Italian-American, Jewish and military group meetings.INQUIRIES
To request the full manuscript for research and publishing queries, email us at info@primolevicenter.org and we'll put you in touch with the author. Roger Sabbadini's memoir was published in 2017 by Bend, Oregon: Alighieri Publishers, 2017 (LCCN 2017913854; ISBN 978-0-692-94680-0). The book is available on Amazon. Contact us if you’re interested in contacting the author.
FRIENDLY FIRE
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Written by Eugenio Czikk
Sample translated by Alessandro Cassin
2010
Eugenio Czikk’s Friendly Fire is an outstanding and deeply rewarding read. Neither simply an account of his experiences during the Shoah, nor a comprehensive autobiography, Czikk uses writing —as well as omissions— as powerful tools to evoke events and emotional entanglements which constitute the fabric of his being. At different moments in his life, confronted by tremendous adversities and uncertainties, the author reports feeling as if he were “deserting himself.” If self-desertion can ever be reversed, this book traces a pathway toward that intent. We are offering here a glimpse of the manuscript that begins with a vivid, clear-eyed evocation of the lost world where Czikk’s life began: a minuscule town in the Eastern Carpatians, an area inhabited by Jews, Ruthenians, Czechs and Hungarians, where national borders shifted like sliding doors.
