Jewish Displaced Persons in Italy 1943-1951: Politics, Rehabilitation, Identity

This book focuses on the experiences of thousands of Jewish displaced persons (DPs) who lived in refugee camps in Italy between the liberation of the southern regions in 1943 and the early 1950s, waiting for their resettlement outside of Europe. It explores the Jewish DPs’ daily life in the refugee camps and what this experience of displacement meant to them. This book sheds light on the dilemmas the Jewish DPs faced when reconstructing their lives in the refugee camps after the Holocaust and how this challenging process was deeply influenced by their interaction with the humanitarian and political actors involved in their rescue, rehabilitation, and resettlement. Relating to the peculiar context of post-fascist Italy and the broader picture of the postwar refugee crisis, this book reveals overlooked aspects that contributed to the making of an incredibly diverse and lively community in transit, able to elaborate new paradigms of home, belonging and family.Honourable Mention for the 2025 Yad Vashem Prize.

About the Author

Chiara Renzo is a Postdoctoral Fellow in History at the Department of Asian and North African Studies at Ca' Foscari University in Venice and teaches Migration and Media at the University of Florence. Her research deals with different aspects of Jewish migrations from the Holocaust to the decolonization.