Italian Holocaust: Individuals--Marcello Buiatti


Figure 1.--This is Marcello and his little sister with their mother after the War. His little sister was born while they were in hiding. Had they been in German custody she would have been killed. Marcello grew up to be a professor of genetics at Florence University.

Marcello Buiatti was a 5-year old Italian boy living in the northern Italian city of Florence when Italy changed sides in the war and the Germans occupied most of the country (September 1943). Suddenly his life changed dramatically. His family went into hiding. They hid at 43 Via Faenza, a narrow pedestrian street near the train station. It is still there and has barely changed. He remembers the paratroopers. At first people thought they were the Americans, but they proved to be the Germans seizing control before the Allies could push north. As far as we know, this was the last German paratroop drop of the War. His mother was a Polish-born Jew, educated in Prague. His father had an office in the city center. He had been in the military and believed the Germans would come and had connections to help prepare for just such a situation. He chose a house owned by a Fascist, but one who did not agre e with the regime's anti-Semitism. It thus was relatively safe and no one would suspect that a Fascist would hide Jews. It was an empty house with an attached chapel. It was built in the 12th Century for Templar Knights. Hardly a place where the authorities would expect to find Jews. Marcello's family was joined by two other Jewish families. There was an Hungarian friend and his son. And an elderly couple with two older sons. They left to fight with the Resistance in the hills. Shortly after they arrived, 'Aunty' Chaja joind them. She managed to escape from an Italian concentration camp with help from the partisans. There was a fresco of an angel painted in an alcove in what served as his bedroom. His father stocked up with supplies brought from his grandparents' farm in Friuli, northeast Italy. After that the partisans would bring food and other essential supplies, but he recalls being hungry and there was not much to eat. A priest also brought food. They had a lamb for a time , but no one knew how to butcher him, or actually wanted to do it. Finally a partisan did that for him. Marcello recalls how good it tasted. He was given a special job. Marcello also remembers the special job he had to do every evening after supper--turn on the radio at 9:00 pm to listen to the Allied broadcasts. This was the time the Allies sent encrypted messages for the Resistance. His father had knowledge of this and would inform several groups of partisans. Marcello was particularly attached to a woman who worked with the Resistance. She helped teach him to read and write. He remembers her being very beautiful and brave. He recalls, "She was a young lady, very beautiful, so I fell in love with her. It was a terrible thing when I heard that she had been killed by a bomb." The Allies conducted bombing raids. They would shelter in the chapel downstairs. Marcello does not recall being scared. The one scare he recalls is when a German Army officer came in seeking shelter during a raid. The partisans were there at the time. He either did not notice they were Jews or did not care. His little sister was born whi le they were in hiding. Had they been in German custody she would have been killed. Marcello grew up to be a professor of genetics at Florence University.

Sources

Mitzman, Dany. "A year in hiding in wartime Florence," BBC News Magazine (December 25, 2013).






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Created: 7:25 AM 3/24/2011
Spell checked: 1:36 AM 12/28/2013
Last updated: 1:36 AM 12/28/2013