Prefettura di Mantova. Ufficio di Gabinetto

Prefettura di Mantova. Ufficio di Gabinetto 

Mantua Prefecture. Cabinet's Office 

Prefettura di Mantova. Ufficio di Gabinetto 

Mantua Prefecture. Cabinet's Office 

300 folders 

In folder n° 15 there are several files named “Razza ebraica” (Jewish race), concerning Mantua and its province, with: a list of the houses owned by Jews, with the names of the people living inside them or “occupying” them; a list of the Jews hidden or irrecoverable in November 26th, 1943; a request by the Militärkommandant in Brescia to obtain quickly a full list with the names of the Jews; a copy of the newspaper “Welt-Dienst”, in Italian, with anti-Jewish propaganda (January 1944); documents of the “Ispettorato Generale per la Razza” (Racial General Inspectorship); requests to Mantua Prefecture made by several Italian firms to obtain a list with the names of the resident Jews, in order to find out whether one or more shares of the same firms was/were owned by Jews; memorandums of the “Ministero dell’Interno” (Home Secretary, May 1944) with practical explanations of the decrees issued by Mussolini in January, 1944, about Jewish belongings’ confiscation; racial controls, made to verify one’s “aryanity”, especially in case of mixed marriages, baptisms, foreign spouse or Jewish grandparents; a complete census of the Jews, including “discriminated” ones (in a positive sense: “discriminated” from persecution, because of special merits), Jews evacuated from Milan and mixed ones, regularly updated since June, 1941 to November, 1943 (with the indication of weddings, dead, births, relocations and new acquisitions among Jewish ranks). In folder n° 77 there is the number of Mantua civilians (particularly, political and racial persecuted ones) who died in the “German camps”, after a request made in July, 1952 by Home Secretary. Folder n° 136 contains a file with requests made by several people for acquiring Italian citizenship, including Bianca Massarani, a Jewish woman who lost it before World War II for marrying a Hungarian subject (her name is also in the fonds EGELI, see it). Folder n° 189 contains a file with a circular letter of Home Secretary dated September 8th, 1960, with formal recommendation not to use the expression “of Jewish race” or “formerly known as of Jewish race” when referring to people of Jewish origin in official documents, making use of their racial files only to give them the benefits they deserved because of the persecution they suffered (according to the Italian law n° 96, issued in March 10th, 1955). Folders n° 220 and 288 contain the acts of three women who in 1961 asked for an official recognition of their status as racial persecuted: Clara Coen, Matilde Coen and Anita Duranti.