Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943–1951

Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity

Chiara Renzo

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9781032223551
• eBook ISBN:
  9781000922585
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: 20th Century History
• Index: History

This book focuses on the experiences of thousands of Jewish displaced persons (DPs) who lived in refugee camps in Italy between the liberation of the southern regions in 1943 and the early 1950s, waiting for their resettlement outside of Europe. It explores the Jewish DPs' daily life in the refugee camps and what this experience of displacement meant to them. This book sheds light on the dilemmas the Jewish DPs faced when reconstructing their lives in the refugee camps after the Holocaust and how this challenging process was deeply influenced by their interaction with the humanitarian and political actors involved in their rescue, rehabilitation, and resettlement. Relating to the peculiar context of post-fascist Italy and the broader picture of the postwar refugee crisis, this book reveals overlooked aspects that contributed to the making of an incredibly diverse and lively community in transit, able to elaborate new paradigms of home, belonging and family.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Series Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Acknowledgements
• List of acronyms
• List of figures and tables
• Notes on transliteration and Hebrew terms
• Introduction
• 1 The liberation of southern Italy and the first core of Jewish refugees
• 2 Living in the refugee camps, longing for “a new, quiet, and safe home”
• 3 Plural identities, one shared goal: rebuilding home and family in the refugee camps
• 4 Confronting the past while building the future: long waits, responsibilities, unexpected outcomes
• Conclusions
• Tables
• Glossary
• Archives
• Index