Advanced Search

Learn About The Holocaust

Special Collections

My Saved Research

Login

Register

Help

Skip to main content

Oral history interview with Piera Bassi

Oral History | Digitized | Accession Number: 1995.A.1272.274 | RG Number: RG-50.120.0274

Search this record's additional resources, such as finding aids, documents, or transcripts.

No results match this search term.
Check spelling and try again.

results are loading

0 results found for “keyward

    Oral history interview with Piera Bassi

    Overview

    Interview Summary
    Piera Levy Bassi, born on October 19, 1923 in Ferrara, Italy, describes her parents and three sisters; their upper-middle class family; attending a Jewish school for five grades and then finishing in a regular school until 9th grade when Mussolini ordered all Jewish schools closed in 1938; going to a teacher training program; taking her finals in Rome, Italy in 1941 and the separation of Jews and non-Jews during the test; the life of the Jewish community in Ferrara; the relationship between the Jewish and non-Jewish community; the 1938 anti-Jewish laws; being afraid to speak against Mussolini; her father's experience in WWI; her fascist family; being in a fascist youth group and their activities and credo; the Jewish newspaper 'Israel', and 'Ade' the Jewish women organization; learning about Zionism; displaced persons camps supported by Mussolini; her family not leaving because her mother had cancer; food shortages when the war broke out; going to Rome; the German takeover; relatives being taken to Auschwitz; her family separating and hiding; being taken with her mother by bus to a large military school in the middle of Rome; passing as half Christians from Bologna and being allowed to leave; making fake IDs; reuniting with her father and sister; finding work tutoring children; the death of her mother in Rome in 1944 and her burial as a non-Jew, so they wouldn't be discovered; leaving Rome and the Americans arriving; the American soldiers provided; working in the PWD Treasury Department; services in the reopened synagogue in Rome; the reassertion of Jewish identity; joining a group planning to go to Palestine; the trip by boat to Israel; being stopped by the British and taken to Atlit and from there to Kibbutz Sede Eliyahu; getting married to her boyfriend from Italy; visiting Italy in 1948; the birth of her children; and the death of her father.
    Interviewee
    Piera Bassi
    Date
    interview:  1996 February 01
    Credit Line
    United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Collection, courtesy of the Jeff and Toby Herr Foundation

    Physical Details

    Language
    Hebrew
    Extent
    6 videocassettes (U-Matic) : sound, color ; 3/4 in..

    Rights & Restrictions

    Conditions on Access
    There are no known restrictions on access to this material.
    Conditions on Use
    No restrictions on use

    Keywords & Subjects

    Personal Name
    Bassi, Piera, 1923-
    Corporate Name
    United States. Army

    Administrative Notes

    Provenance
    Nathan Beyrak conducted the interview with Piera Bassi in Israel on February 1, 1996. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Archives received the tapes of the interview in May 31, 1996, as an accretion to the original collection of Israel Documentation Project interviews received by transfer in February 1995.
    Funding Note
    The production of this interview was made possible by Jeff and Toby Herr.
    The cataloging of this oral history interview has been supported by a grant from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany.
    Record last modified:
    2023-11-16 08:15:54
    This page:
    https:​/​/collections.ushmm.org​/search​/catalog​/irn503117

    Additional Resources

    Download & Licensing

    In-Person Research

    Contact Us