A Thread of Grace

Author’s Note

A Thread of Grace takes place in an imaginary landscape peopled by fictional characters, but my intent was to present an accurate portrayal of the 1943–45 German occupation of northwestern Italy. Hundreds of histories, memoirs, and published interviews contributed background, but I must single out the two books that provided impetus for this novel. The Sant’Andrea story line formed around the section called “The Priest, the Rabbi and the Aviator” in Alexander Stille’s historical study Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism (Summit Books, 1991). The mountain story line took its shape from Alfred Feldman’s memoir One Step Ahead: A Jewish Fugitive in Hitler’s Europe (Southern Illinois University Press, 2001). My Web site, www.MaryDoriaRussell.info, includes an a

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Rochelle Losman of Traces 2000 facilitated interviews with veterans of the armed anti-Fascist Resistance, including Carla Capponi, Rinaldo Bausi, Mario Livi, Max Boris, Gino Servi, Orazio Barbieri, Ugo Sacerdoti, Mario Treves, Giorgio Dieno, Eugenio Gentile Tedeschi, and Giova

Many others in Italy and the United States told me stories of childhood and daily Italian life during the Second World War. In particular, I thank Emmanuele Pacifici, Carmello Furnari, Marietta Gettenberg, Dani Marino, Rosetta Delbiondo Marino, Renato Marino and A

It will be eerie, I suspect, for these people to recognize elements of their own experiences mixed with the memories of others, filtered through a novelist’s imagination, and assigned to a character of a different age or gender. What I have written is not real, but I hope they will find it true.

My thanks also go to Alberto, Davide, and Mirella Cavaglion, to Dr. Giova

The following provided professional insight: José Alfredo González Celdrán (Middle Eastern philology); Father Ray Bucko and Father Ross Fewing (Catholic practice); Frank Olynyk, Ferdinando D’Amico, Richard P. Doria, Charles O’Toole, and Dr. Sven Kuttner (militariana); Sister A

To my agents, Jane Dystel and Miriam Goderich, and to the peerless Leona Nevler: thank you for your faith, judgment, and friendship. My editor Susa

As good as my professional team is, we all owe a great debt to my amateur editors. Je

Skeptics may believe that I have idealized the courage and generosity of ordinary Italians during the 1940s. So I will close with the inscription chiseled on the marble memorial stela erected in Borgo San Dalmazzo in 1998 by the Jews of Saint-Martin-Vesubie in honor of the people of Valle Stura and Valle Gesso.

WHEN RACIAL HATRED RAGED IN EUROPE,

JEWISH REFUGEES, UNCERTAIN OF THEIR FATE,

COMING FROM DISTANT COUNTRIES

— AUSTRIA, BELGIUM, GERMANY, POLAND—

FOUND HOSPITALITY AND SAFETY IN THESE VALLEYS.

HIDDEN IN ISOLATED COTTAGES,

PROTECTED BY THE POPULATION,

THEY WAITED WITH TRUST AND HOPE,

THROUGH TWO INTERMINABLE WINTERS,

FOR THE RETURN OF LIBERTY.

IN HOMAGE TO AND IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO HELPED THEM,

THOSE REFUGEES AND THEIR DESCENDANTS

EMBRACE THE NOBLE INHABITANTS OF THESE VALLEYS

IN BROTHERHOOD.

About the Author

A paleoanthropologist known for work on ca