Carlo D’Angeli, the son of Renata and Mario D’Angeli, was born in Milan, Italy, on December 2, 1938. His father was a clerical worker.
Jews had lived in Milan, a large commercial and industrial city in northern Italy, since ancient Roman times. Jews received full rights in 1859, when Milan became part of the new Italian kingdom. In 1931, there was a substantial Jewish community in the city. Most Jews living in Milan were well educated, industrious, and middle class. Italian Jews were well integrated into all aspects of Italian social and cultural life. They worked in nearly every profession, including government and the military.
In November 1938, Mussolini became dictator of Italy, and anti-Jewish racial laws were immediately passed. Jews were now barred from most professions and from public education. They were devastated, both economically and emotionally. Many endured unpleasant antisemitic incidents, and it was extremely hard to make a living. Everyone knew families with members who had converted, emigrated, or had been arrested.
When Hitler invaded Italy on September 8, 1943, Carlo’s family was evacuated to the small town of Montecatini-Terme. One month later, the Germans began rounding up Jews for deportation to concentration camps in Poland and Germany.
On November 5, 1943, members of the Italian Fascist Militia and the German SS found Carlo, his parents, and his baby brother, Massimo. On November 9, they were shoved into an overcrowded, unsanitary cattle car in Florence. This train, the second deportation train to leave Italian soil, carried at least 400 Jews to Auschwitz Death Camp in Poland.
Carlo’s train arrived in Auschwitz on November 14, 1943. Immediately upon arrival, he and his family were sent to the gas chambers, where they were murdered.
In two weeks, he would have been 5 years old.
Carlo was one of 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the Holocaust.
A personal history from the Archives of the SIMON WIESENTHAL CENTER 1991-786 [001]
