Yet, with this first question in mind, strangely enough, one may ask a better question: why did so many Italian Jews perish in the Holocaust? About 15 percent (or 6,800 people) were rounded up and deported to be killed from a country that, despite its nineteenth century ghettos and Fascist rule, had no significant anti-Semitic tradition. In 1943, the Jews of Italy were in proportion quite few, thoroughly integrated, and physically indistinguishable from their fellow Christian countrymen. Certainly, it seems, there should not have been difficulty in hiding. Furthermore, the Holocaust in Italy began much later in Italy than it did in most other European countries, so that Jews should have been aware of danger and quick to flee. How could the lives of these people been taken under such circumstances? .
To both questions, the answers lie with the people who were involved. The majority of the Jewish Italians at the time, according to Zuccotti, were brave, resourceful, individualistic, nonsubmissive, and determined to survive, while a small minority were terrified, unimaginative, passive, and unable to save their own lives. Of the non-Jewish Italians, many were anti-German, anti-Fascist, and prepared to help all fugitives who came their way. In spite of a rather inactive and indifferent pope, clergy members were prominent in the rescue effort. Aside from sympathetic priests and nuns, efforts to save Jews were provided by doctors, lawyers, government officials, and housewives, among others. On the contrary, a small minority of the non-Jewish Italians served the Nazis, took part in hunting fugitives, and sadly betrayed their Jewish neighbors. .
Italys Jews can trace their roots back to ancient times. The Vatican was well preceded by the synagogue. Throughout the Christian era and the Middle Ages, the Jews of Italy faced many restrictions and persecutions, with brief interludes of calm.