A Microcosm in Florence: Jewish-Gentile Interactions from the Fascist Regime to the Holocaust

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis work reconstructs episodes from the microcosm of Florentine Jews during the period from Fascism to the Holocaust. It analyses the decisions and fate of Elio Salmon and his family. While Salmon's sister-in-law and her husband, Maria and Gualtiero Cividalli, chose exile for themselves and their family and emigrated to Palestine, Elio and his family remained in Florence. They passed the years of Nazi occupation and the RSI in hiding, through dramatic events which led to their survival thanks to his resourcefulness and to the community of friends and acquaintances who offered aid. It was a microcosm in which social networks and friendships intertwined, transcending the duality of fascism and resistance and the distinction between Jewish and gentile. This analysis contributes to a deconstruction of the idea of Italian society's innate goodness or morality during the Holocaust, and highlights the social and political relationships that led to Jews’ survival, in the context of a social fabric in which the “victims of the war” cultivated networks and forms of reciprocal solidarity.