Most of the articles we run in JVibe's "Israel" section are contemporary stories about Israeli teens living in Israel, or the experiences of American teens who visit there. Recently, however, one or our writers told us about an extraordinary event that took place over 60 years ago, concerning a group of young teens who escaped from the Holocaust and made their way to Palestine. Confronted by danger, they looked after one another, worked together and eventually found their way to the Promised Land. Below is their story.

In 1941, 43 Zionist youth from Germany, Austria, and Poland all met up in Poland in hopes of then moving on to Palestine to escape the Nazis. The plan was that, accompanied by their teacher Joseph Ithai, they would set up a kibbutz once they got to Palestine and live there in peace and safety. When they arrived in Yugoslavia, they discovered to their horror that they were in a German zone. Not only was travel to Palestine now impossible, but they were all in danger of being arrested.

A young priest steps in to help

Fortunately, an Italian official helped Ithai take the teens to the Italian zone (Italy was an ally of Germany, but the Italians did not persecute the Jews). The Italian Jewish relief organization supplied them with funds to buy food and find a place to stay, and when they were settled, they were joined by 30 more children and young people from Yugoslavia. The group ended up living here until the German troops took over the Italian zone. In desperate need of a new plan, the Italian Jewish Relief organization helped the teens escape to Nonantola, a small farming village in northern Italy.

Fortunately, the Catholic priests in the Abbey in Nonantola cooperated with the Jewish Relief organization. Father Arrigo Beccari, a young priest from the Abbey, told villagers in Nonantola who came to greet and welcome the teens; arrangements were made for them to live at the Villa Emma, an old empty mansion. When they arrived at the Villa, it was completely empty--no furniture, no cooking supplies, nothing. So women from the village brought food to the mansion, and Father Arrigo Beccari came to put the teens at ease.

Ithai and the teens were determined to make the Villa Emma a place where the teens could carry on with their Jewish studies, learn farming skills and prepare for life on a kibbutz. Meanwhile, the Jewish relief organization made the Villa Emma its headquarters and continued to supply funds to purchase food and other necessities. In just a few weeks, the mansion was transformed into a comfortable home, with one room in the Villa set up as a synagogue. At last, everyone could relax.

Father Beccari helped Ithai set up the school program for the young children. The older boys worked with local farmers and the girls helped with the cooking and the school program for the young children. More young people and children began arriving, and soon there were approximately 100 children and young people living peacefully at the Villa Emma.

The German troops invade

Just as the community truly began feeling safe, German troops invaded northern Italy in September 1943. There were too many Jewish children and young people in Nonantola to be kept together, so Father Beccari went around the village and surrounding countryside, asking people door to door to hide the young Jews. Within just a few short hours, all the older boys and girls were hidden in homes in the village; the youngest children stayed at the abbey.

 However, this was clearly a short-term plan. With the German troops surrounding, it was no longer safe for Jewish people in Nonantola; the head of the Abbey, Monsignor Pilati, Dr Moreali, the village doctor, and Father Beccari planned the youth's escape to Switzerland. All the youth were given a false identification card, and five weeks later, dressed in the uniforms of students in a Catholic school, the teens and the younger children boarded the train to Swiss border, north and east of Nonantola. They had to change trains in Milan, and their train to the border town did not leave until early the next morning.

The great escape to Switzerland

Making the escape all the more difficult was the fact that German soldiers were patrolling the train station. The group hid in an underground public washroom and spent the night huddled together like sardines in a can. Early the next morning, they boarded the train to the town, and finally crossed the border on foot. Every teen held the hand of a younger child as they hiked up the steep alpine path to the Tresa River. There they had to cross the small rapid alpine stream on foot. Holding hands in a human chain, they stepped into the rapid stream and crossed the river. When they reached the other side, a Swiss guard examined their identification cards and let them enter.

The group lived in a small remote village in Switzerland called the Bex-Lex-Bains until the end of the war in 1945. After the war, their dream came true and Ithai took them all to the promised land.

A tribute in Israel

The young people and the children of Villa Emma never forgot Father Beccari, Dr. Moreali or the people of Nonantola. In Haifa, Israel a park, the "Gan Nonantola," was created to honor the people of Nonantola. Tilla Offenberger, one of the heroic young people, inscribed a plaque for the park in Hebrew and Italian that reads:

"In honor of the citizens who under the guidance of the parish priest Don Arrigo Beccari and Dr. Guiseppe Moreali, righteous among the nations, saved during the Holocaust of 1943, 107 Jewish orphaned children of Europe. With eternal gratitude, the children of the Villa Emma."

Father Beccari and Dr. Moreali were honored by the Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Memorial and documentation center in Israel. Recently, The Villa Emma Foundation, was established in Nonantola to promote peace and Holocaust education.

Sally Rogow has written several books for teachers in the field of Special Education and has written books for young people, including Lillian Wald: The Nurse in Blue (published by the Jewish Publication Society). Her newest book is Faces of Courage: Young Heroes of World War II.