04/08/2025
This smiling baby is Bice Fubini
born in 1943. Fubini described her birth like this:
“My 20th century began in Alassio in April 1943.
On my birth certificate, it was written:
‘This newborn, according to the law… is of Jewish race.’
But I only found out years later, when I was asked
to provide the original certificate for my wedding.
An honest civil servant at the registry office
shocked by the note, felt compelled to show it to me.
But the stories about my birth are
cheerful and lighthearted:
the midwife who didn’t dare tell my mother
I wasn’t the boy she had hoped for
my mother scolding Dr. Deaglio
a noble anti-fascist figure from Alassio
and a family friend for refusing her anesthesia
cousin Dattolo Vita, a talented photographer
who happened to be there and gave me
a princess-worthy photo shoot
and cousin Luisa Levi who coming down
from the villa on the hill
discovered I had been born thanks to
a pink ribbon on the clinic gate.
Only much later, when I had become a mother myself
did I fully realize what had been happening
—to children ‘of Jewish race’—
across half of Europe at the very same time I was born…”
We thank Museo Nazionale dell'Ebraismo Italiano e della Shoah for sharing these powerful stories as part of our project.
Want to keep reading Bice Fubini’s story and discover more about this photo? Link here
https://900.meis.museum/alassio-aprile-1943-un-neonato-di-razza-ebraica/
