From Fiume to Navelli
A 16-Year-Old's Narrative of the Fleischmann Family & Other Free Internees in Facist Italy 1943-1944
By Luigi Fleischmann
August 2007
Yad Vashem Jerusalem
Distributed by Coronet Books Inc.
ISBN: 9789653082977
232 pages, Illustrated
$26.50 Paper original
Luigi Fleischmann's diary documents a little-known aspect of the Holocaust: the plight of Jewish "free internees" in Italy during WWII. Originally handwritten in Italian, the manuscript describes in vivid detail the unique predicament of Jewish residents following the passage of Nazi racial laws in Italy. Luigi was incarcerated with his parents in Navelli - a small village in the mountainous Abruzzi region in the center of the country from September 1943 - June 1944. The young teenager relates the conditions under which internees - Jews and others lived, their relationships with the natives as well as the local fascist and German forces, and their worsening plight following the collapes of Mussolini's government. The lucid descriptions are enhanced by outstanding drawings of the area and events of the time, pen etched by the author on the back of special postcards provided by the Italian government for civilian internees.
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