The story of my family is a story of humanity and bravery as well as cruelty and hate, foresight as well as naivety and several “what would have happened if” moments that would mean life or death
The story of my grandparents and their parents is the story of the escape of two families from Fascist Italy, an escape that brought most of the members of the family to a refugee camp in Switzerland and some of them to Auschwitz. The story focuses on my grandfather and grandmother and their parents and it is part of the bigger story of the rest of the members of the family that would have to be told separately.
My grandfather, Manlio (Mordechai) Campagnano, was born in 1912, the son of Umberto and Olga, and lived in Carpi, in Northern Italy. He worked in a textile dyeing factory owned by his father and was able to complete his academic studies at the end of 1939, immediately after the racial laws forbidding Jews to study were passed.
My grandmother, Anna Vigevani, was born in 1921, the daughter of Lionello and Amelia, and lived with her parents in Bologna. Her father ran a soap and perfume factory and was forced to change the name of his business and hide his role there because of the racial laws. Anna herself was unable to work or study and the family suffered abuse by their neighbour’s children. The members of the family heard worrying news from Jews who fled from Austria, Germany and Yugoslavia, but believed that things like that could not happen in Italy.
In the autumn of 1943, when the police began arresting Jews, the Vigevani family found refuge in a village in the mountains. The Campagnano family, who was well known in Carpi, also because Umberto Campagnano was the President of the Jewish community in nearby Modena, found refuge in another village. My Grandfather, Manlio, used to ride his bicycle between the hiding places, to keep the contact between the two families.
In October, the Fascists arrived to the Vigevani family home in Bologna, with the intention of arresting the family. The concierge rushed to their hiding place to warn the members of the family, who escaped to a new hiding place, in the attic of a chemical fertiliser plant owned by a friend of the family, where they remained for several weeks, until they were asked to leave, for fear of discovery.
In the meantime, my grandfather was contacted by Odardo Focherini, an Italian journalist who was known for helping Jews. Focherini was able to obtain members of both families fake identification papers and told the priest Don Dante Sala, of their situation. Don Dante Sala had been helping Jews escape across the border to Switzerland for a while, with the help of local smugglers, and started preparing the escape of the two families in two groups.
The first group left on 29 November, crossing the border on the night between November 30th and December 1st, 1943. Just before they left, it was decided that my grandmother, who was at the time engaged to my grandfather, would join her fiancé’s family. This change would prove fateful.
At the border crossing in Switzerland, the police were initially unconvinced the members of the family were indeed Jewish and refused them entry. Fortunately, my grandfather had in his possession his university diploma, that stated “Member of the Jewish Race”, and so, the words that indented to humiliate and mark him, became the family’s ticket to salvation in neutral Switzerland.
On November 30th, 1943, after leaving the Campagnano family with the smugglers, Don Dante returned to Modena to pick up the Vigevani family, who were supposed to leave the following night. But Lionello and Amelia, who did not know road blockages had been placed on the roads, had decided to go back to their previous hiding place to bring some clothes they left there, and upon their return, were captured. Don Dante Sala was forced to leave with only my grandmother’s sister and her family who were able to cross the border with great difficulty after walking for many hours in the snow, with their smalls twin boys. Upon his return, Don Dante Sala was arrested and locked up in a Fascist prison where he was abused.
After a period of incarceration in Modena, Lionello and Emilia Vigevani were sent to the Fossoli concentration camp, where they were helped by some of my grandfather’s employees. It was from there that Lionello was able to send a letter to his daughters in which he informed them of their capture and assured them they were healthy and lacked nothing. The letter was sent from Fossoli on 12 December, 1943, and a printed copy of it reached Switzerland only in May 1944, after it was diverted through the Vatican. This was the last sign of life the family received. They later found out that Lionello and Emilia Vigevani were deported to Germany on the first transport to Auschwitz on 22 or 23 February, 1944. They arrived to Auschwitz on 26 February and due to their age were sent immediately to the gas chambers.
In the meantime, in Switzerland, my grandparents were moved between several refugee camps. in June 1944 they married, so they could stay together, but despite that, were forced to separate a short time after that. In the refugee camps they suffered cold and hunger and lived in very bad conditions. Umberto became ill and spent part of the time in hospital. Manlio worked as a dish washer in a beer brewery and Anna worked as a maid at the house of a diplomat. Manlio used to tell a story that reflected the bad treatment they were sometimes subjected to: One day he was asked to shovel the snow from the driveway of a local women. When he completed the task, the woman came out of the house and gave him a slice of bread for his trouble. She then went back in and returned with a bowl of cream in her hands, which she promptly put on the floor for her cat to enjoy.
In July 1945, a few months after the war ended, the members of the family returned to Italy. On their voyage to the Italian-Swiss border, they had to stand, crowded, in the back of a truck, and their first few days back in Carpi were spent at the family’s factory, as their home had been broken into and ransacked. The first few years were difficult, but gradually my grandfather restored the family’s factory. Eventually, Manlio and Anna followed their daughters to Israel and spent the rest of their lives in Jerusalem.
Like so many other stories, the story of my family has elements of foresight as well as naivety, humanity and bravery as well as hard-heartens and hate, painstaking planning as well as chance, small decisions that can prove fateful and several “what if” moments that could mean life or death. What would have happened if Anna had not joined the Campagnano family at the last minute? What would have happened if Lionello and Amelia had not gone back to bring the clothes they had left behind? What would have happened if the family did not possess a document that would prove they were Jews? The scenarios are endless.
The members of my family were saved thanks to my grandfather’s foresight and initiative and the bravery and kindness of Odardo Focherini and Don Dante Sala who were both recognised as Righteous Among the Nations. Focherini was caught and sent to die in Flossenburg. Don Dante Sala was able to come to Israel in 1972 to plant a tree in the Righteous Among the Nations Avenue. In addition to those two men, there is also the concierge at the Vigevani family home who warned the family, the people who gave them refuge in various places and the employees of the factory who helped the Vigevani’s after their capture, kept the factory and returned it to my grandfather, intact, after the war. In their journey, the family also encountered people who mistreated them and who refused to help them, whether out of fear or out of antisemitism.
Manlio Campagnano died in Jerusalem on 29 January 2002, at the age of 89. Anna Vigevani Campagnano died on 3 April 2020, at the age of 99. May their memory be blessed.
