Italian Jewish Auschwitz survivor Piero Terracina dies aged 91
One of the last survivors in Rome's small community passes away as he's heralded as a 'true light in these dark times'
Piero Terracina, one of the last survivors of Italy’s tiny Jewish community who were deported to Nazi death camps during the Second World War, has died. He was 91.
Terracina died on Sunday, Rome’s Jewish Community said.
As a 15-year-old, he escaped the round-up by German occupying troops of Rome’s Jews in 1943 and went into hiding with his family.
But the next year he was arrested and deported to the complex of Auschwitz with his family, where his parents, three siblings and other relatives died.
Terracina’s recounting of the horrors suffered there won praise by Italian leaders.
Noemi Di Segni, president of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities, hailed Terracina as a “true light in these dark times” which she described as being marked by words of hate and denial of the Holocaust.
Terracina was described as the last Roman Jew among Italy’s Holocaust survivors at the time of his death.
Even before many of them were hauled off to death camps by Nazi occupiers, the nation’s Jews were already suffering under Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, whose regime, in 1938, enacted anti-Jewish laws.
Among other things, the laws banned Jews from holding public positions, including teaching, and forcing Jewish-owned stores to put signs in their windows identifying them as such.
There has been a surge in anti-Semitic incidents in Italy in recent years.
Recently, a police escort was assigned to another Holocaust survivor among Italian Jews, Liliana Segre, who received death threats and hundreds of anti-Semitic insults.
She was named a senator-for-life for speaking to Italian schoolchildren about the horrors of the concentration camps.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
