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6.66% Into the Depth of Silence / Chapter 1: Prologue
Into the Depth of Silence Into the Depth of Silence original

Into the Depth of Silence

Author: UriNachimson

© WebNovel

Chapter 1: Prologue

It should come as no surprise to people of the West and East alike that they are all, to some degree related. Only by breeding animals can a pure race exist.

This phenomenon certainly exists among humans who for generations have mated or have been raped. Society is incapable of controlling the "purity of the race."

Jewish blood flows in the veins of many Europeans, even among anti-Semites who cannot bear the thought that they, too, might have Jewish genes. Even the most extreme Orthodox Jews are not of pure race; in their veins flows the blood of Cossacks who raped their wives and daughters in Ukraine and Polish villages and those who have chosen a mixed marriage with members of a different race or belief.

Who it really does interest are geneticists or those interested in delving into their roots and exploring their past.

Italian Jewry is one of the oldest Jewish communities in Europe. It goes back more than twenty-one hundred years when the Hellenes and later the Romans brought the Jews from Palestine as prisoners. During the middle ages, many Jews from Germany and France immigrated to Italy and settled there. After Spain expelled their Jews in 1492, many deportees fled to Portugal and Italy and established new Jewish communities.

In Sicily, the Jews suffered from severe persecution. In 1514 all the Jews in the Kingdom of Sicily, which was then under Spanish rule, were expelled. Ten years prior, the Jews from Naples were exiled.

On July 14, 1555, two months after he was chosen, Pope Paul IV issued the Bula, which stated that Jews must live separately from their Christian neighbors. This decree eventually led to the establishment of the Rome Ghetto.

A year later, in the port city of Ancona, twenty-four martyrs who fled Spain to Italy and tried to return to Judaism were sentenced to death and were burnt alive.

The expulsion of the Jews from Spain and later from Portugal caused the "New Christians" (those Jews forced to convert to Christianity) to migrate to other countries. Some settled in North Africa, while those who did not want to live among Muslims, continued to the Netherlands, Italy, and South America. "New Spain," as the Spanish conquerors called Mexico, attracted many "New Christians." Among them; merchants and peddlers, artisans, some doctors, and even some military men. Most of the international trade was in the hands of the New Christians who established relationships with European Jews, most notably with Jewish merchants in the Netherlands.

The New Christians intermarried among themselves and, with significant risk, met to pray in hiding places, to prevent the neighbors from finding out and accuse them of being Jewish. In the 16th century, ghettos were established in many cities in Italy. Major ghettos were located in Venice, Rome, and Florence. In 1593, a Jewish community in Livorno was founded by Spanish and Portuguese immigrants. This community was among the few communities in Italy where Jews did not live in ghettos.

After the conquest of Italy by Napoleon in 1796, the Jews of Italy were emancipated, and it signaled the beginning of a flourishing Jewish presence in Italy. In the liberation movement headed by Garibaldi, many Jews were prominent military leaders and statesmen. The Jews were granted their civil rights thanks to the referendum's passage in 1870, whereby Rome joined the Italian empire.

In the early years of Mussolini's fascist rule, Italian Jews enjoyed complete freedom and equal rights and even attained high standing. Italy viewed Zionism favorably. Early on, few Jews joined the Fascist party. Some partook in Rome's parades, mainly soldiers and officers who fought in the First World War beside other privileged Jewish groups.

In 1938, when racial laws against the Jews were enacted, thousands of Jews were fired from key government positions, the army and navy, and all educational institutions.

For them, it was truly tragic. They did not believe that the country they helped establish would turn against them in such a manner. The situation for the Jews, which already was precarious and uncertain due to the racial laws, worsened with the Italian Social Republic establishment.

On December 1, 1943, the government issued an order requiring all Jews to present themselves at police stations. From there, they were transported to central prisons and eventually taken to concentration camps. Fossoli concentration camp, located in the village of Fossoli near Modena-Verona railway line, was the main camp.

Of the approximately 45,000 Jews who lived in Italy and Rhodes at the end of 1943, the time of the proclamation of the Republic of Salò, more than 8,500 were deported. The death toll is estimated to be around 8,000; although many cases of assistance to the Jews are known, the active participation of the Republic of Salò, its police, and officials in locating the Jews, assembling them, and eventually sending them off to the East was a significant contribution to the fate of those victims.


Chapter 2: Rome 1996 - The meeting

"Don't be upset, Beatrice, but you have a Jewish nose."

Her cheeks turned red.

"Excuse me? A Jewish nose? And what does a Jewish nose look like? "

"Look into the mirror, and you will see."

A burst of laughter erupted from the three women sitting at the table in the small cafe on Rome's outskirts.

"I always am told I have a Roman nose," Beatrice said defensively.

"What does it matter, Jewish, Roman, Greek, it does not detract from the fact that you are a real gnocca."

"Now you are flattering me. Aren't you?"

Graziella approached Beatrice and hugged her. "I did not mean to offend you," she whispered into her ear.

Beatrice stood up and turned to some men sitting nearby.

"Hey," she said, "Would somebody tell me if being Jewish is something to be ashamed of?"

"If all Jewish women looked like you, then no, it's not a shame," replied one of the men as the others grinned and shook their heads without looking straight at her.

"You wretched racists," she blurted out at them.

Graziella raised her hand and motioned for the waiter to bring the bill. "Sit down Beatrice; you are making a fool of yourself; nobody here is a racist. I do not understand why you get so upset; it was just a statement, without any intention to offend."

For a moment the atmosphere seemed to calm down. Beatrice sat down and was silent as the conversation continued to flow in other directions. The waiter came and put the bill down on the table as Beatrice grabbed it and placed the payment next to it.

"I will pay, so you won't say that I am as stingy as you think Jews are."

She got up and left the cafe leaving her friends standing stunned and embarrassed.

"I do not understand what got into her. Where is the sense of humor? Why take everything so hard?" Beatrice Palumbo was born five decades ago in the Italian port city of Livorno, located in Tuscany, to a bourgeois Catholic family. When she was ten years old, they moved to Rome. Her devout parents, Sonia and Michele, would take her and her brother Davide who was two years younger than her, to church every Sunday. On Fridays, they did not eat meat, and at family meals, they made blessings over the food. Every week Beatrice and Davide would go to confession in the small local church in their neighborhood. At night before going to sleep, they would say a prayer.

Even after her marriage to Silvio and the birth of her two daughters, Maria Grazia and Monia, she kept up all the duties. However, approximately ten years ago, after her parents died within a year of each other and her girls were grown, she would skip praying now and then, avoided going to confession, and even didn't go to church on Sundays anymore.

When her two daughters got married, and her marriage to Silvio went sour, she decided that she was no longer interested in maintaining a religious character. She stopped going to church altogether and even missed her frequent visits to her parents' gravesite and contented herself with a visit once a year on All Saints' Day.

Her brother Davide, who never married, remained a devoted Catholic. He did not work, did not want to meet anybody, and lived on a meager disability pension. For a time, he brought into his home a homeless man whom he met at the church's soup kitchen where he would go for a hot meal. Beatrice suspected for many years that he had mental problems but they never talked about the subject.

After breaking up with her husband, she suddenly felt free to do whatever she pleased. She would hang out with her friends in cafes, enrolled in a neighborhood English class, and read many books that she borrowed from the public library in her neighborhood, where she worked as a part-time librarian. She did all the trite things that her husband had deprived her of, on the pretext that they were a "waste of time."

"Excuse me, but do you have a book on genetics?"

Beatrice, who was busy pasting the cover of a damaged book, raised her head. In front of her stood a smiling young man.

"Scientific genetics? Evolution? There are many books on the subject but what exactly are you looking for? "

The young man looked a little embarrassed.

"The truth is, I do not know; I want to understand genetics," he replied.

Beatrice typed the word "Genetics" into the computer and looked at the screen: "Genetics is a science that deals with the way humans, animals, and plants pass along different traits to their offspring."

Suddenly she remembered something and went over to one of the bookshelves. "We have a book on the Rev. Gregor Mendel, who is credited for bringing the science of genetics to the world."

She raised her hand to reach for the book.

"I will require an ID card from you."

When he handed it to her, she read his name aloud, "Claudio Palumbo! What a coincidence. That is my maiden name."

The young man smiled awkwardly. "That is strange. I've never met anybody bearing the same last name as mine."

"Where are you from?" she asked with growing curiosity.

"My parents were originally from Naples, but I was born and raised in Rome," he replied.

"And do the grandparents live in Naples?"

"Yes. My maternal grandparents died when I was a baby, but my paternal grandparents are both alive."

"What is your interest in genetics, if I may ask?"

"I'm very interested in family history. I am trying to understand what genes are and how they are genetically transmitted. I read that science is working on genetic mapping whereby a saliva test can identify belonging to a geographical area and to some extent the probability that the person is of one descent or another."

"Why is this so interesting to you?"

I am interested in the roots of the surname Palumbo. Since I read an article about the Jews who were expelled from Spain and came to Italy's ports, I discovered that one of the cities that agreed to absorb them was Naples.

The city was ruled by Ferdinand the 1st and his son Alfonso the 2nd, who later became the King of Naples. The first Jewish immigrants arrived in the town in 1492 after wandering between the various ports of the Mediterranean. Many of those who came were sick, which caused a plague to break out in the city. King Ferdinand the 1st was successful in eradicating the epidemic. After King Ferdinand died, his son Alfonso the 2nd became king but fled to Sicily, and Charles VIII, King of France, entered Naples. Shortly after that, riots broke out among the Jewish inhabitants. In 1510, Fernando the 2nd issued a deportation order for the Jews. Some families who fled were called Palumbo. Those who converted to Christianity remained in the city. "

"And if the results of your research will show that you are of African descent, does that change anything for you?"

"And if the results show that I am of Jewish descent?"

Beatrice's face suddenly turned serious as she remembered her "Jewish nose," but immediately recovered, and her smile returned.

"It was great talking to you. We may find out one day that we are relatives."

"And Jewish, too," he replied, giggling as he walked away.

She remained tucked in her chair for a long hour staring into the air and in deep thought.


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