Memoirs and Biographies

Fleeing for Safety: From Mantua to Switzerland Edited by Alessandro Vivanti Translated by Will Schutt The book combines two accounts, one picking up where the other leaves off, like the passing of a torch. The son, Corrado Vivanti, opens with…

Reluctant Jews Translated by Jeremy Moyle Rather than going in search of his Jewish roots, Sandro Gerbi focuses on the reverse process: the gradual secularization of his family during the twentieth century, through the progressive distancing from religious observance, Jewish…

Efratia Gitai: Correspondence (1929-1994)    Selected & edited by Rivka Gitai Translated by Timothy Aaron Priest Born in 1909 in Haifa to Russian Zionist parents, Efratia Gitai was “the eldest daughter” of the Second Aliyah, the second wave of Jewish…

Reflections of An Educator, Researcher And Entrepreneur Andrew Viterbi Dedicated to the memory of both his father Achille and his son Alexander, this memoir reconstructs the course of his academic career at a time in which technology played a major…

Return to Erfurt – Story of a Shattered Childhood: 1935-1945 Olga Tarcali The narrative follows the family’s flight from Germany to Brussels, through the grim French camps in Gurs and Saint–Cyprien, to the Cote D’Azur. After the capture of their…

Skirmishes on Lake Ladoga – From Venice to Rome escaping the Racial Laws Roberto Bassi “Every morning in the kitchen I used to read – and comment upon – war bulletins for my grandmother. When everything was quiet, it said…

I am Counting on You, on Everyone… – Eight  Letters from Fossoli, 1944. Gemma Vitale Servadio This book presents the eight letters written by Gemma Servadio from Fossoli that have come down to us, curated by her granddaughter Mirella Bedarida…

Americordo – The Italian Jewish Exiles in America Gianna Pontecorboli Pontecorboli's book is a long overdue account of a lesser-known aspect of the Italian anti-Jewish persecution: the exile of Italian Jews to America. Forced to the US by the Fascist…