The Italian people never liked the Fascist racial laws, a newly arrived German refugee who had lived in Italy said today. He related instances of kindness by officials as well as ordinary Italians toward refugees affected by Mussolini’s adoption of Hitler’s anti-Semitic legislation.
“I know of cases,” this man said, “in which poor refugee families, obliged to live in the south of Italy near the internment camp I was at, received help from the villagers, who collected money to buy clothes for them. I know of policemen who informed refugees in advance that they had orders to detain them, so that they could move on and escape being sent to a concentration camp. Some police authorities gave advice to refugees on how to avoid expulsion.
“There were cases of Italian officials who deliberately falsified the ages of refugees in documents so that they might comply with a Spanish regulation permitting only men of non-military age to enter Spain.” He said he could not remember a single soldier or officer at his camp who had not behaved with “the utmost correctness and courtesy.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
