Italian Jews aid towns that gave shelter during WWII

FOSSA, Italy - Italian Jews and Holocaust survivors are rushing to aid communities that sheltered them during World War II and were hit by last week’s devastating earthquake.

A delegation of some 20 elderly survivors and their descendants, as well as Jewish community leaders, roamed the shattered countryside of central Italy on Monday, looking for their one-time saviors, now living in tent camps.

They offered everything from gym shoes to summer camps for children.

“I wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for these people,” said Alberto Di Consiglio, whose parents were sheltered in the small hamlet of Fossa during the war. “We have to help them.”

More than 100 tent cities have been built around L’Aquila and the 26 towns and villages affected by the 6.3-magnitude quake, which struck central Italy on April 6. The temblor killed 294 people and displaced another 55,000.

In the chaos of the relief efforts, Jews who had been sheltered in the area during the war lost touch with their one-time saviors, many of whom are simple farmers with no cell phones.

At least five Jewish families, including around 30 people, took shelter in the small mountainside hamlets of Fossa and Casentino between mid-1943 until the arrival of the Allies a year later, survivors said.