October 16, 1943: Eight Jews

Front Cover
University of Notre Dame Press, 2001 - History - 100 pages

For more than fifty years, Giacomo Debenedetti's October 16, 1943 has been considered one of the best and most accurate accounts of the shockingly brief and efficient roundup of more than one thousand Roman Jews from the oldest Jewish community in Europe for the gas chambers of Auschwitz. Completed a year after the event, Debenedetti's intimate details and vivid glimpses into the lives of the victims are especially poignant because Debenedetti himself was there to witness the event, which forced him and his entire family into hiding. Eight Jews, the companion piece to October 16, 1943, was written in response to testimony about the Ardeatine Cave Massacres of March 24, 1944. In this essay, Debenedetti offers insights into that grisly horror and into assumptions about racial equality. Both of these stunning works are appearing together, along with Alberto Moravia's preface to Debenedetti's October 16, 1943, for the first time in an American translation. October 16, 1943/Eight Jews gives American readers a first glimpse into the extraordinary mind of the man who was Italy's foremost critic of twentieth-century literature. In addition to probing the deeper, haunting questions of the Holocaust, Debenedetti briefly describes the seizure of the Roman Jewish community's library of early manuscripts and incunables, the most valuable Jewish library in all of Italy. Following the roundup, this library was never seen again. Award-winning translator Estelle Gilson offers an additional essay on the history of the library and modern-day attempts to locate it. October 16, 1943/Eight Jews is a moving work that will continue to challenge readers long after they have closed its pages.

From inside the book

 

Contents

Alberto Moravias Preface to October 16 1943
15
EIGHT JEWS
63
The Fate of the Roman Jewish Libraries
91
Copyright

Other editions - View all

October 16, 1943/Eight Jews
Giacomo Debenedetti
No preview available - 2020

Common terms and phrases

Alberto Moravia Alianello already appearance become began begins believe called carried cars centuries collections complete created cultural death Debenedetti deported doors Eight Jews entire eyes face fact Fascist fate fear feel forced German Ghetto give going gold guards hand head hiding human immediately It's Italian Italy Jewish community Kappler keep kind known later least leave living longer look manuscripts material mind minutes morning names nature Nazis never night October 16 officer opened passed perhaps places police possible precisely question race racial reason remained Roman Rome roundup sense September shouting Signora soldiers speak stand street suffering taken tell terror there's things tion took trucks turn woman writing

References to this book

About the author (2001)

Giacamo Debenedetti (1901-1967) was a professor at the University of Messina and the University of Rome, an editor at an Italian publishing house, Italy's foremost critic of twentieth-century literature, and a friend of leading leftist intellectuals, including Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Neruda.

Bibliographic information

TitleOctober 16, 1943: Eight Jews
AuthorGiacomo Debenedetti
Translated byEstelle Gilson
Editionillustrated
PublisherUniversity of Notre Dame Press, 2001
Original fromthe University of Michigan
DigitizedAug 26, 2008
ISBN0268037132, 9780268037130
Length100 pages
Subjects ›  ›  › 

History / Jewish
History / Modern / 20th Century / Holocaust
History / Social History
History / Wars & Conflicts / World War II / General
  
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