Biography
Ursula Korn (now Selig) is the daughter of Johanna and Paul Korn. She was raised in Breslau, Germany where her father owned a department store. In the 1930s after the Nazi seizure of power, Ursula and her mother fled to Alassio, Italy, where her aunt and uncle owned a hotel. Her father remained in Breslau to manage his store. When he finally lost his business through Aryanization, he attempted to flee to England, where he hoped to bring his family, but he got no further than the French border. He then rejoined his family in Italy. In 1940 after Mussolini entered World War II, Ursula's father and uncle were sent to an internment camp in Salerno. Two days later Ursula, along with her mother, aunt and cousin, were taken to a prison in Perugia, where they remained for a week before being transferred to the village of Collazzone in Umbria. The conditions of their internment in Collazzone were relatively mild, though they were prohibited from interacting with the local population, denied the right to receive mail and had to report to the police four times daily. In 1941 the women were transferred to Citta del Castello near Perugia, where they met Ursula's father and uncle, who had been released from Salerno. All six members of the extended family lived together in a single furnished room and survived on meager government rations. While in Citta del Castello, the Korns were befriended by some of the local Catholic clergy. Ursula and her cousin were granted the special privilege of attending the local convent school even though they were not Catholic. The director of the seminary, Monsignor Beniamino Schivo, made sure the girls were not pressured to convert and brought them supplies and extra rations. When the Germans occupied the region in September 1943, Schivo and another priest smuggled the Jewish family out of town and guided them on a long trek through the night to the summer villa of the Salesian convent. Once they arrived, the priests broke down a side door and helped the six Jews prepare a hiding place. For the next few months they remained at the villa unbeknownst to the nuns who lived there. On Christmas Eve 1943 Schivo brought the family food and spent the night with them in their tiny cubicle next to the special oven where the nuns baked their bread. Located close to the German line of defense, the villa soon became too dangerous a place for the Korns to remain. Schivo sent another priest to escort Ursula's father and uncle to a location higher up in the hills. Ursula and the other women hid in the woods, where they joined up with a group of partisans. Later, when Ursula and her mother could hide no longer, Schivo brought them back to Citta del Castello. He disguised them as nuns and placed them in a locked room at the Convent of the Sacred Heart across the street from his seminary. He did not permit them to leave the room for fear that unsympathetic nuns would denounce them. During this period, the village was under intense bombardment from Allied forces. After the bombing subsided, Schivo brought them to his seminary, which had since been turned into a hospital. There they stayed in another locked room until the English liberated the village on July 14, 1944. Ursula remained in Citta del Castello until 1950 when she and her parents immigrated to the U.S. She kept in contact with her rescuer and in the 1980s nominated him for recognition as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. Monsignor Beniamino Schivo received his award from Yad Vashem in 1986.
