Nedo Fiano, one of the last living Italian witnesses of the Shoah, passed away in Milan aged 95.
Fiano was one of the first survivors to discuss his tragic experience in public. He was captured by a fascist in his Florence, locked up in the city jails and then, after being interned at the camp of Fossoli, deported first to Auschwitz and later Buchenwald. He was the only one of his family to survive deportation.
On the platform of the concentration camp, he gave a last hug to his mother, about which he always recalled with deep emotion. A hug marked by the awareness that they would never see each other again. Indelible wounds, but Fiano had nonetheless the strength to build and rebuild a life together with his beloved Rina Lattes, the schoolmate he met again after the Shoah: they had three children, Enzo, Andrea and Emanuele.
Fiano used to remember: “What has characterized my whole life was my deportation to the Nazi extermination camps. With me in Auschwitz my whole family ended, they were all exterminated. At eighteen I was orphaned and this devastating experience made me a different man, a witness for life”.
His passing was mourned by many. “His lucid testimony, his unshakable civil commitment and memory, will remain an indelible mark over the generations”, said President of the Union of Italian Jewish Communities Noemi Di Segni.
Sending condolences on behalf of the whole country was President of the Italian Republic Sergio Mattarella who called his son Emanuele “expressing sentiments of condolence and closeness”. He was joined by Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte, who said: “With the death of Nedo Fiano we lose a passionate, precious witness to one of the darkest pages in the history of humanity”. Also the President of the European Parliament David Sassoli, commented on his death: “A precious witness to the horrors of the Shoah, a refined writer, a kind and tenacious man”. May his memory be a blessing.
