On June 18, 2019, Orly Ardon, daughter of Itamar (Deutsch) Doron, a child of Selvino, and granddaughter of two instructors in the institute visited Sciesopoli.
At nine in the morning Enrico Grisanti accompanied the family of Orly Ardon, with husband and her daughter, to the town hall of Selvino, where they were received by the deputy mayor Virginia Magoni, representing the municipal administration of Selvino.
They were taken to the museum which is under construction, and in which some large printed proof sheets of the museum panels were exhibited.
Orly signed the guest book and told the story of her family with great emotion, to tears. The mayor presented Orly with gifts from Selvino and photos were taken outside city hall.
Then there was a visit to the House of Sciesopoli led by architect Lara Magnati, appointed by the Municipality to follow the renovation and securing the roof, a contribution of the Ministry of Cultural Heritage. They were accompanied by two high school students following a formal authorization to access the site.
In fact, the work is in progress and the end stages. The roof over the terraces have been completely covered and insulated so that it can no longer rain into the structure. The Municipality will organize a huge task of cleaning the garden and the interiors with the help of Selvino volunteers.
The film director Enrico Grisanti was able to video record Orly Ardon while narrating the story of her father, a Child of Selvino and her grandparents who were instructors at the House of the Children of Selvino. The visit ended around 13:00.
His father, Rabbi Eliezer Otto Deutsch, was born on 25/03/1911 in Ruma, Serbia and died at the age of 32 on 11/25/1943 in Nocera Inferiore (Salerno), after being deported from the island of Susak , which was occupied by the fascists and internment in the concentration camp of Ferramonti di Tarsia (Cosenza) in Italy.
Her mother’s name was Hermina Deutsch Guttman, she was born on 11/01/1913 Vararzin, Croatia and died on 17/05/1983 in Rishon Le Zion, Israel. He studied as a teacher in Yugoslavia and worked as a teacher of children in Selvino. Hermina remarried in Milan in 1948 with Eliyahu Scheiner, born 5/5/1911 and died on 7/7/2001, in Rishon Le Zion in Israel. They met in Selvino, where Eliyahu was a carpentry teacher and continued to work as a carpenter even after immigrating to Israel in 1948.
מידע על משפחת אורלי ארדון בביקורם בסלבינו:
אנריקו אסף את משפחתה של אורלי ארדון מן המלון והביא אותם אל בניין העירייה, שם הם פגשו את וירג’יניה מגוני.כאן התקיימה תצוגה של המוזיאון על גליונות מודפסים גדולים.אורלי חתמה בספר האורחים וסיפרה את סיפור משפחתה ברגש רב עד דמעות.אחר כך הם ביקרו בשיסופולי בהדרכת האדריכלית לארה מגנטי, שמונתה על ידי העיריה לעקוב אחר עבודות הבנייה, מלווה בשני סטודנטים צעירים עם אישור רשמי לבטיחות האתר.למעשה, העבודה מתבצעת עכשיו להחלפת הגג בחלק של הכניסה הראשית לבנין.אנריקו הקליט את סיפורה של אורלי על אביה, סבה וסבתה.הנה מספר פרטים על משפחתה:אביה איתמר יוסף דורון (דויטש), נולד ב – 23/12/1934 Osjiek, יוגוסלביה – נפטר ב- 03/12/2008 ברעננה.סבה: רבי אליעזר אוטו דויטש, יליד 25.03.1911 ברומא, סרביה. נפטר ב- 25/11/1943Italy, Ferramontiסבתה: הרמינה דויטש לבית גוטמן, נולדה בתאריך 01/11/1913 Vararzin, Croatia, נפטרה ב – 17/05/1983, בראשון לציון.היא הוכשרה כמורה ביוגוסלביה ועבדה כמורה בסלבינו.הרמינה נישאה בשנית ב-1948, לאליהו שיינר, יליד 5/5/1911, אותו פגשה בסלבינו. הוא היה מורה לנגרות בסלבינו והמשיך לעבוד כנגר לאחר עלייתם ארצה ב -1948.
From the testimony of Itamar Doron released to Yad Vashem on April 15, 1996, translated by his daughter Orly Ardon (OA):
Susak family and childhood background:
Itamar’s father was the rabbi of that community; in 1942 his father was deported to the Ferramonti concentration camp, where he died from an illness; in 1943 Itamar and his family fled to the Bakarac partisans, while his mother earned a living in commerce; spent the rest of the war years in a Catholic boarding school [in Cesano Boscone]; after the war ended, he moved to Selvino, to an institute of the Aliyah Youth, where he met the children who returned from the camps (concentration, OA); in 1948 he emigrated to Israel and quickly adapted to the new life.
On learning the stories of the Holocaust in Selvino:
“This (his life in the college of the House of the “Divino Redentore”, in the municipality of Cesano Boscone, OA) ended in 1945, if I’m not mistaken. Around August or September, we moved to Selvino, an Aliyah Youth Institute (Aliyat Hanoar) Here is where I started to hear [of the Holocaust] “.
Q: Was it 1945?
A: I think it was in 1946 if I’m not mistaken. That was when I started hearing the first wave of children from concentration camps.
Q: did you meet them?
A: They started talking about the atrocities that happened in the camps. We all spoke in Yiddish. I had difficulty speaking in Yiddish while my family spoke German and not Yiddish, but I learned the language fairly quickly. The children came from the ghettos, they came from the concentration camps, from the bands of the partisans of Russia and Belarus. They came from the bunkers, from all kinds of hiding places, mostly they were orphans. That’s where I heard all their stories – horrible stories. The Came Mengele twins came from Terezenstat, Buchenwald, Majdanek and all other places. Children tend to return to normal life in some way. Life somehow goes on.
Q: Did you hear their stories?
A: Not only did I hear, but the same Selvino instructors came from Eretz Israel. The director of the institute was Moshe Zeiri. He left the brigade (Jewish, OA) after the war, so that he could stay with us as an instructor. There were other instructors from Israel. And there were instructors, who were refugees, who joined us and somehow began to teach. Gary Bertini for example. Gary Bertini’s father. The didactic language was partly Hebrew, mostly Yiddish, while the children spoke in Yiddish. But obviously we learned Hebrew. There were children screaming at night because of nightmares. The dorm was in huge rooms. Indeed huge rooms. Each child had his own corner, but the dormitory was arranged in the entrance, with about 50 children. Almost every night someone was crying and someone was screaming. There were nightmares among the children. I don’t know if I had them myself – I don’t remember anything particularly – but I certainly screamed too. Some of the children have found their family, some children have not found their family. Some were fighting among the partisans. We were divided into age groups. I was among the youngest. I was about 11-12 years old, I was among the youngest. But there were also 18-19 year olds who had actively participated in fighting with the partisans. They told so many stories … We had the memories of Friday night. The boys would have turned their hearts upside down. This happened with the encouragement of the instructors. Perhaps the instructors didn’t know psychology, but they learned very quickly to teach, making the kids talk, maybe it was easier for them.
Q: And did they talk?
A: They talked. They talked a lot. From these stories I got to know the whole war experience. In fact, I realized for the first time what it was like to live among the partisans. Because what I had seen with the Partisans (Yugoslavs) was not something to talk about. I saw people killed and … but I didn’t take part in the fighting. Here we had children who were 14-15-16 years old, who actually held weapons and killed Germans. Or children who were hidden in all kinds of places among the Goyim (Gentiles, NA). I was among the gentiles too but I wasn’t hidden, I was in … I lived their experiences, heard the stories, the fear, the life in the woods, without food, in the cold, that winter of 1944 in Europe was a I remember a bitter winter: it was a winter that lasted from November until almost mid-May. Everything has been frozen in Europe.
And they talked about that winter. People stopped in that winter. In that winter I also had a frozen finger. Up to this date a finger of my foot was frozen (it showed the tip like a child, NA). But I was in human condition. They were in far worse conditions. Through them I got to experience their experiences. I know them, I heard all the stories. The friends who were with me in the institute told me things that maybe they hadn’t told anyone. How they wet their pants with fear. They saw through the cracks, where they were hidden, how the Germans were approaching them and at the last minute they went somewhere else and gave up. They knew they were going to fall. Or children of concentration camps – some were in the death camps with numbers (tattooed on their arms, NA) from Auschwitz and Bikenau. They didn’t know what was going on, they only knew it was horrible. The horrible smell didn’t leave them until the last day.
Q: Did you probably not hear about Auschwitz until then?
A: No, obviously not. I didn’t hear during the war. I heard about concentration camps only after the war. Before the war I saw Jews fleeing from Czechoslovakia and Hungary, but I didn’t know what was happening.
Q: What was the atmosphere like after the war?
A: The atmosphere after the war – we were a happy island of Eretz Israel in Italy. In fact, in Selvino we sang Israeli songs and protested for controlled immigration to Israel. Italians have been very touched by our actions. They didn’t understand exactly what this torchlight parade was in the middle of the immigration night (legal, NA) free in Israel. We have been very active in Alyiah Bet and Daled. Alyiah Daled served to the children who were added to the families who were returning to Israel. Alyiah Bet was illegal immigration. Our summer camps took place near Genoa, in a place called Bogliasco, if I’m not mistaken. This was also one of the stops on Alyiah Bet. I remember one night I couldn’t sleep very well because I suddenly felt a lot of commotion. I see a lot of people walking with packages and boarding a medium-sized ship, not something very big, in the bay of that summer camp where we were. Then we understood. In the morning they told us that this was the Alyiah Bet and that we shouldn’t talk about it. In fact, that summer camp was just a cover for Aliyah Bet activities. There has been a steady increase in new children in Selvino at this institution of Alyiah Youth. Suddenly, the children who fled Germany to Russia and lived there as orphans started to show themselves. This was a very different group of children who had experienced the Russian experience. They were constantly on the run from the Germans. They were in institutions for Russian children. Very nice at all levels. We have been taught to respect justice, to tell the truth, not to steal from one another, etc. And most of the children didn’t – they weren’t thieves, they were right. Yet these children had been thieves and liars. This was the education of Russian orphanages. In November 1948 we emigrated to Israel. We have arrived at the last days of the war, the War of Independence. I still have a bomb from the Egyptians. We came to Israel and went to the same kibbutz which included the live broadcast of the House of Selvino: Kvutzat Schiller. He took us there. I was there for a short time and then I left Kvutzt Schiller and the Aliyah Youth and moved in with my mother.
My mother had married one of Selvino’s instructors, the carpenter instructor. There was an “Ort” carpentry school in Selvino and he was the teacher. He married him and I moved with them.
Itamar Doron spent his remaining youth years working during the day and attending evening classes to graduate from high school. He got into the Technion and graduated in electrical engineering. He spent most of his life in the Israeli defense forces as an electrical engineer.
