This is now my second blog inspired by my recent 18-day vacation to Italy, Greece, Malta and Spain. Twelve days of the trip included a cruise, and since I had toured the Naples area extensively in the past, I selected a shore excursion to the lesser known area west of Naples, the Campi Flegrei region. It was a beautiful landscape created by volcanic activity over the past several centuries.

One stop included the rural hunting grounds and summer home of the past kings of Naples that has now been turned into the park. Though there were several buildings to see including a charming mini-palace in the lake, our guide made it a point to stop at what he felt was one of the most important places in the park.

It was an old train car with no windows and a plaque remembering the Jews gathered up in Italy as the same time of the Nazi holocaust in Germany. When fascist dictator Benito Mussolini establish the Jewish segregation law in 1938, Italian Jews lost their civil rights including those to property, education and employment. They were removed from government jobs, the armed forces, and public schools (both as teachers and students.) Many Jews left Italy at this time, but a great number of those who remained were rounded up to be killed in 1943. Train cars like the one in the photo transported Jews to the one Italian concentration camp in northern Italy, and when that one could not handle all the people, many were sent to camps in Germany.

The Campi Flegrei region near Naples

Our guide shared and I confirmed it with online research that, in general, the fate and persecution of Jews in Italy between 1938 and 1943 has received only very limited attention in the Italian media (Vitello, Paul (4 November 2010). “Scholars Reconsidering Italy’s Treatment of Jews in the Nazi Era”) Our guide said he felt it is very important for people to understand racism and genocide in the past so that we as humans avoid these mistakes in the future. He did lament Italy’s current turn to the far right with the latest election, (which had one of the lowest turnout) of fascist prime minister Giorgia Meloni. This underscores the importance of voting.

Thank you for reading about this sobering moment from my vacation and the importance or remembering some of the darkest days of human history.