Berl Grosser postcards

Berl (later Bernardo) Grosser was born on 2 October 1906 in Kamionki Wielkie, Poland. His family moved to Zwickau, Germany in 1910, and Grosser lived there until 1936, when he left Germany for France, and subsequently Italy, where he immigrated in 1938. Following his arrival in Italy, he began working with the Committee for the Assistance of Jews in Italy, or COMASEBIT, actively aiding Jewish refugees until that organization was shut down by the Italian government in July 1939. Later that year, however, the Union of Jewish Communities petitioned the government to allow them to establish a new refugee relief organization, and the Delegazione per l'Assistenza agli Emigranti, or DELASEM, was created. Grosser served as a co-director of this organization, which was originally headquartered in Genoa, but soon established branches throughout Italy and beyond. Following the Fascist Italian surrender to the Allies in 1943, and the subsequently takeover by Germany of areas of Italy not yet liberated by the Allies, Grosser and other DELASEM members were forced into hiding, and Grosser eventually managed to escape to Switzerland, where he continued his work among Jewish refugees there. While in Switzerland, Grosser met Vittoria (Rina) Brunner, whose family had also fled to Switzerland (from Trieste), and the two married after the war and their subsequent return to Italy. Grosser continued to work on behalf of Jewish refugees in Italy in the immediate post-war period.