A Child Al Confino: The True Story of a Jewish Boy and His Mother in Mussolini's Italy (47 page)

I also discovered I had managerial skills and soon ventured into my own business. In Mexico, where I went to visit my parents, I made contacts to import lady's garments and so began my importing business. Two friends offered financial support and off I was as an entrepreneur. I soon expanded the enterprise to include European giftware making my task of selling, packing, and shipping a greater selection of items much more demanding. For four years I struggled, until good judgment dictated that I should close shop and return my friend's money.

Fortunately the company that originally had hired me as a salesman and where I set a record of earning offered me the opportunity to take over the direction of their New York branch. It had been losing money and was doomed to be shut down. I devoted six months to reorganize both the sales and office staff, while trying to overcome the objection of the outgoing manager who kept reminding me that “We don't do things this way in New York.” After hearing his remark several times, I finally suggested that he go home and wait there for his severance pay.

Before the end of the first year, I succeeded in turning a profit for the branch. But after two years, my free spirit induced me to try a hand at my own business once again. Soon thereafter, to satisfy my wife's desire, I sold the business and we moved to Miami Beach, where I faced new challenges. Our marriage was on the rocks and lasted less than one more year. The break-up was a financial disaster and compelled me to earn enough to support two households including two small children.

Having freed myself from an unhappy marital life, I embarked once more on a new venture. This time I opened a real estate office. Two years later I expanded into other fields, allowing the company to deal with commercial accounts, which led us to launch a national collection agency. The business flourished for two decades, at its peak employing about one hundred people. In 1992, after hurricane Andrew partially destroyed our home, I decided to retire and devote myself to writing and singing my favorite music: opera and Neapolitan songs.

Sad to say that my business successes were not matched by two of my marital experiences. That, however, is not true of my third marriage to my current spouse, Judith K., known as Cookie, to whom I have been wed twenty-nine tumultuously happy years.

At the age of eighty, I feel no older than I felt at forty. I enjoy racing a road bike and do so some thirty-five miles a week, I play tennis, and occasionally like to go skiing. I also prefer walking up the stairways unless the building is more than five stories high.

Time and time again I have been asked what effect the war years and the circumstances under which I grew up had on me. Often I have examined myself to reach an honest answer. Growing up among mature and intellectual people guided my young malleable mind to grasp philosophical theories and to develop psychological understandings that in later years might not have been easy to absorb. Much of what I learned in those early years, many people do not learn until many years later in life and with much greater effort.

It is true I lost most of my childhood, but many, who know me, will tell you that I regained it in my adult years, gauging from my tendency to often act as a youngster. The deprivations I suffered as a child, in spite of my mother's effort to spare me much of that, evolved into many positive traits in my later years. Without question I adapt more easily to negative aspects of life. Often I have been on a financial roller coaster realizing how truly little it affected me when compared to the emotions of others close to me or perhaps even party to it.

I find it easy to shed everyday problems. Very little is so important that it makes me sad or even angry. But I do look for the humor that surrounds us every day and try to laugh at that hoping to dispel the excessive seriousness that people insist on making part of their lives.

Glossary

Ach Du lieber
(German): idiomatic expression meaning “dear one.”

a danke Gott
(Yiddish): thank the Lord.

A kholeriye oyf dir
. (Yiddish): you should be struck by cholera.

ain bissle
(Yiddish and German): a little.

Alle Deutsche sind nicht gleich
. (German): all Germans are not alike.

arrivederci
(Italian): so long.

a suo favore
(Italian): at your pleasure.

Auflauf
(German): dumplings.

auguri
(Italian): best wishes.

a yid
(Yiddish): a Jew.

Bellissimo
.
Fatto in Inghilterra
.
Per bacco
! (Italian): very beautiful. Made in England. My goodness!

bello
(Italian): nice, beautiful.

Bello
,
molto Bello
. (Italian): Beautiful, very beautiful.

bene
(Italian): good.

bima
(Hebrew): platform where the Rabbi or reader stands to read the holy scriptures.

Black Shirts (English): synonymous with “Fascists” and signifying those who used the black shirt as a uniform.

bono o bellissimo
(Neapolitan dialect): good or very beautiful.

briscola
(Italian): old card game played with special playing cards.

bubbe mayse
(Yiddish): a grandmother's tale.

buon giorno e benvenuti
(Italian): good day and welcome.

buon giorno
(Italian): good day.

Camicie Nere
(Italian): Black Shirts; Fascist paramilitary groups supporting Mussolini.

camionette
(Italian): pick-up trucks.

carabiniere
; pl.,
carabinieri
(Italian): policeman, at one time the Royal Guard.

caserma dei carabinieri
(Italian): police station.

Cche bella cosa na iurnata e sole
. (Neapolitan dialect): how nice to have a sunny day is. First line of “O, Sole mio.”

centesimi
(Italian): fraction of the Italian currency, the lira.

centime
(French): one hundredth of French franc.

certainement
(French): certainly.

Certo
,
padrone
. (Italian): Certainly, master.

C'est formidable
(French): This is terrific.

chaserai
(Yiddish): filth, garbage.

Che cazzo ne saccio?
(Local Italian dialect): Literally, “What do I know about dicks?”

Che lo pozzino ammazzare
,
qual benedetto Mussolini
. (Italian and local Italian dialect): Literally, “May they kill that blessed Mussolini.” “Blessed” is used ironically and here signifies damned.

Che vulite
? (Local Italian dialect): What do you want?

Cicerone
(Italian): a tour guide who is well informed of the area.

Claruccia
(Italian): endearing diminutive of Clara.

commissario
(Italian): superintendent or police chief.

confinati politici
(Italian): political internees.

cosi sia
(Italian): equivalent to “Amen.”

cummare
(Neapolitan dialect): has many meanings, such as best friend, godfather, best man at a wedding.

Curten spieler
(Yiddish): a card player.

Dass ist incredibile
. (German and Italian): This is incredible.
Dass ist
is German
incredibile
is Italian.

Dass kann dir nicht weh tun
. (German): This cannot hurt you.

De gustibus non disputandam est
. (Latin): There is no disputing taste.

Deutsch sprechen?
(German): Do you speak German?

Die kennst andere Yidden?
(Yiddish): Do you know other Jews.

Die willst ein Shabbes essen
? (Yiddish): Do you want a holiday meal?

Dobusch
(German): a Viennese twentylayer cake with glazed sugar topping.

Du auch
. (German): You too.

Du bist so dick geworden
. (German): You've gained so much weight.

Eccoci. È tempo per un pó di tè
. (Italian): Here we are. Time for some tea.

ein bissle
(German): a little.

Einlauf
(German): enema.

Enricuccio
(Italian): an endearing diminutive of Enrico.

Erich
.
Ich muss dich anschauen
(German): Eric, I must look at you.

Er redt auf di menschen man siht von oiben
(Yiddish): he's talking about the people you see from the top of the hill.

Eych zoll azoy wissen fon tzures
! (Yiddish): I should know so much about trouble!

eyn curten spieler
(Yiddish): a card player.

Eyn glik hot mik getrofen
! (Yiddish): Good fortune has met with me!

Eyn stick dreck
. (Yiddish): A piece of filth.

E veramente una bella giornata
. (Italian): It is truly a beautiful day.

fasce
(Italian): bandages; strips of cloth, usually from old sheets.

feldmarschall
(German): field marshall.

figli di puttana
(Italian): sons of whores; sons of bitches.

galleria
(Italian): gallery; refers to a crosslike structure, generally with a domed roof and filled with eating places and shops.

geh zurück
(German): go back.

geschmat
(Yiddish): conversion to Catholicism or other religion.

Gesu Cristo mio
(Italian): My Jesus Christ.

goldenes
(German): golden.

Groschen
(German): fraction of Austrian currency: the Schilling

Hasele
(German): little rabbit

Ich haette dich nicht erkannt
(German): I would not have recognized.

il commerciante
(Italian): the businessman.

Il Duce
(Italian): the leader; epithet given to Benito Mussolini.

il portinaio
(Italian): the janitor.

Inferno
(Italian): underworld. The first book of Dante's
Divina Commedia
.

internati
(Italian): internees.

joie de vivre
(French): joy of life.

Kaddish
(Hebrew): traditional Jewish prayer for the dead.

kasche
(Hebrew): question typically asked at the Pesach Seder by the youngest member at the table.

Katzele
(Yiddish): little kitten; term of endearment.

Kennst du das Land woh die Zitronen bluehn
? (German): Do you know the land where the citrus blooms?

Kol Nidre
(Hebrew): the special chant which opens the Yom Kippur services.

La Domenica del Corriere
(Italian): an Italian weekly magazine with artist renditions, in lieu of photographs, to show world events. Popular during the war years.

l'shana tova
(Hebrew): the customary good wish for the Jewish new year.

ma cher
(French): my dear.

Madonna mia
(Italian): My Holy Mary.

mammina
(Italian): diminutive of mamma.

maresciallo
(Italian): sergeant.

Maronna mia
!
Hanno ammazzato Peppino!
(Local Italian dialect): Holy Mary! They've killed Peppino!

mein
(German): my, mine.

Mensch
(Yiddish and German): a human with great sensitivity and feeling for others.

mercato nero
(Italian): black market; contraband.

merci
(French): thank you.

mon ami
(French): my friend.

merveilleux
(French): marvelous.

meshuge
(Yiddish): crazy.

mia cara signora
(Italian): my dear lady.

milanese
(Italian): veal cutlet similar to a
Wiener Schnitzel.

miny'n
(Hebrew): required number of men, ten, to perform Jewish religious services.

mio caro signore
(Italian): my dear sir.

Mischa
(Yiddish): the name my mother called my papa.

mishegas
(Yiddish): craziness.

MSM (
metri sul mare
) (Italian): meters above sea level.

Mutti
(German): derivative from Mutter. Generally the name used for “Mother” will denote the language the characters are speaking. Thus,
Mutti
denotes German and
mamma
or
mammina
denotes Italian.

natürlich
(German): naturally; of course.

nein
(German): no.

Nicht alle Deutsche sind gleich
. (German): Not all Germans are alike.

niente
(Italian): nothing.

Non voglio
. (Italian): I don't want to.

Non so, ma ci dovremo adattare
. (Italian): I don't know, we will just have to adapt.

Nous parlerons français
. (French): We shall speak French.

Geshmat
(Yiddish): conversion to Catholicism or other religion.

O, Madonna mia
(Italian): Oh, Holy Mary.

opera buffa
(Italian): comic opera.

orzo
(Italian): barley.

padrone
(Italian): master (term of respect).

palatchinka
(Hungarian): a Viennese/Hungarian version of a French crepe, usually filled with jam, cottage cheese, or chocolate cream.

Paludi Pontine
(Italian): a very large, mos-quito-infested swamp in the vicinity of Rome.