Ursula Tenenbaum sits at a table with two daughters of a local watchmaker in San Donato Val di Comino, Italy, circa 1942-1943.
Overview
- Caption
- Ursula Tenenbaum sits at a table with two daughters of a local watchmaker in San Donato Val di Comino, Italy, circa 1942-1943.
The names of the two other women are unknown. - Date
-
Circa 1942 - September 1943
- Locale
- San Donato Val Di Comino, [Latium; Frosinone] Italy
- Photo Credit
- United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of Mordechai Tenenbaum
Rights & Restrictions
- Photo Source
-
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial MuseumProvenance: Mordko Tenenbaum
Keywords & Subjects
- Keyword
- GROUP PORTRAITS ITALIANS JEWS (ITALIAN) TABLES WOMEN
Administrative Notes
- Biography
- Mordko Tenenbaum (1911-2010) was born Mordechai Tenenbaum on July 2, 1911 in Kobrin, Russia (Kobryn, Belarus) to Szloma Tenenbaum and Mindla Goldberg Tenenbaum. He was raised in a Jewish family in Brest-Litovsk, Poland (Brest, Belarus), and attended the Polish school and later the Jewish high school of the Tarbut. By 1931, numerus clausus had been enacted in the Polish University system to limit the admission of Jews and other minorities. This prompted Mordko to move to Italy to study medicine at the University of Florence.
Ursula Lotte Steinitz Tenenbaum (1916-2009), (aka Ulla or Ursel) was born Ursula Steinitz on May 25, 1916 in Breslau, Germany (Wroclaw, Poland) to Else Jacobsohn (1877-1950) and Kurt Steinitz (1872-1929). She was the youngest sibling raised in a Jewish family and had four siblings: Hans (1902-1986), Ruth (1903-1984), Wolfgang (1905-1967), and Marianne (1910-2001). In 1933 Ursula moved to Florence to complete her last year of high school. She then enrolled in an obstetric professional school to become a midwife. Between 1933 and 1939 Else Steinitz and all of her children managed to move out of Germany going to the Soviet Union, Palestine, Egypt and Sweden.
Mordko and Ursula met while they were studying respectively medicine and obstetrics in Florence. In 1938 Italy’s fascist government passed antisemitic legislation by which foreign Jews had to leave the country by March 12, 1939. They extended their residence by applying for visas in multiple countries, none of which came through. They married in Florence on November 29, 1939.
Italy entered the war in June 1940 as an ally of Germany. Mordko was soon arrested as a "foreign Jew" and detained in Le Murate prison in Florence. Two weeks later he was deported to Campagna internment camp and, in August 1940, to the camp of Ferramonti di Tarsia. Shortly after, Ursula was interned with other Jewish women in San Donato Val di Comino under the status of "confino" (surveilled residence). She was lodged in a private home and was prohibited from employment or free movement.
On September 26, 1940, Mordko was transferred to confino (surveilled residence) in San Donato Val di Comino. He and Ursula lived in the house of Francesca Cardarelli and her three daughters. Their daughter Katrin Tamara Tenenbaum (aka Katja) was born there in 1942.
Italy surrendered to the Allies in September 1943. Mussolini proclaimed the Italian Social Republic (RSI) under German military control. From South of Naples to the Alps, the peninsula was occupied by German troops while the civil administration remained in the hands of the RSI. The Tenenbaums, along with other internees, fled San Donato Val di Comino. They hid in a nearby mountain area called the Vorga and remained there from October to December 1943, returning to the village at night to sleep in the basement of Costanza Rufo. Mordko and Ursula offered medical assistance, food, and lodging to Allied soldiers who had been captives of the Italian Army and tried to reach the frontline at Cassino.
The Tenenbaums were denounced by locals due to their assistance to POWs, and during a nighttime German raid at the Vorga, a suitcase with photographs of Katja was seized. Mordko and Ursula became fugitives and went into hiding. Katja was placed for two weeks with Francesca Cardarelli’s parents, until they found refuge in the nearby town of Sora. Through a medical student who had joined the armed resistance (CNL), Mordko and Ursula obtained false identification cards under the names of Marco and Maria Cedrone.
In April, the front drew closer to Sora and bombing became relentless. On April 6, following another denunciation, 16 internees who had remained in San Donato were arrested and deported to Auschwitz via the Fossoli concentration camp.
In May 1944 the family managed to arrange their flight from Sora to Rome with the help of Paolo Zeri the director of the Sora hospital. Mordko joined the resistance while Ursula and Katja went into hiding until the Allies entered the city on June 4, 1944. Their plan was to repatriate to the Soviet Union. Instead, Mordko accepted a position as a doctor at the UNRRA Cinecittà displaced persons camp. Their son Alexander Victor Tenenbaum (aka Sascha) was born in 1945. They briefly lived in Israel in 1949 and then returned to Italy. Mordko worked for IRO and became director of the OSE (Organizzazione Sanitaria Ebraica or OZE) in 1953, serving in that role until 1970. Ursula worked for the Italian achsharoth, JDC, HIAS and IRO and dedicated herself to women’s sexual education. She worked in Africa with Planned Parenthood.
- Record last modified:
- 2024-10-22 00:00:00
- This page:
- http://collections.ushmm.org/search/catalog/pa1140500
