The Jewish Community of Merano and Bolzano in the Shoah

80 Records

Holocaust · Victims · South Tyrol · Italy

Background

This collection comprises a list of the Jewish community of Merano and Bolzano who united people from all over Europe, mostly Eastern Europe or from the territories of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire. This aspect distinguished it from all the other communities present in Italy, which was rich in history, multiculturality, languages, competences, and innovation to Merano society at that time. In Merano and Bolzano, the Jewish doctors and physicians created tourism for health and relaxation. Due to their resourcefulness, tourism in Merano is still very important at the present. Very important personalities of that time like Franz Kafka, Stefan Zweig, and the Empress Sissi came to Merano to care for their health, giving the town particular prestige.

Unfortunately, all this notoriety, did not help Merano avoid persecution. Nazis and local Fascist in Merano organized the first deportation from Italy on 16 September 1943. The deportation first went to the transit camp of Reichenau (Innsbruck) in Austria and then to Auschwitz. The names have been sent to the “Book of Memory” which will hopefully add these names to the CDEC Digital Library digital archives digital-library.cdec.it .

The list is limited to Jews who lived in South Tyrol during the Shoah but includes a wide group of original nationalities;  Austrian, Czech Republic, Slovakian, Hungarian, Russian, Ukrainian and elsewhere.

Database

The fields in the database are:

Surname
Given Name
Place of Birth
Date of Birth
Residence During the War
Place of Arrest
Date of Arrest
Detentions
Place of Death
Date of Death
Acknowledgements

The information contained in this database was indexed from

  • Research in Archivio Centrale dello Stato (Rome).
  • Antonella Tiburzi, Insegnare l'Alto Adige tra guerra, deportazione e memoria. StoryMap come strumento didattico per la classe, in the following link novecento.org
  • Antonella Tiburzi, Gli ebrei meranesi e bolzanini nel lager di Reichenau, docs.google.com

See docs.google.com for a short analysis of the history and fate of the Jewish community of Merano and Bolzano.

Thank you to Nolan Altman, Director of Special Projects and Coordinator of the Holocaust Database, for his continued devotion and dedication to JewishGen’s important work.

October, 2023

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