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A Child al Confino: The True Story of a Jewish Boy and His Mother in Mussolini's Italy
 
 

A Child al Confino: The True Story of a Jewish Boy and His Mother in Mussolini's Italy [Kindle Edition]

Eric Lamet
4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)

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Product Description

Product Description

Eric Lamet was only seven years old when the Nazis invaded Vienna--and changed his life and the lives of all European Jews forever. Five days after Hitler marches, Eric Lamet and his parents flee for their lives. His father goes back to his native Poland--and never comes back. His mother hides out in Italy, on the run from place to place, taking her son deeper and deeper into the mountains to avoid capture.

In this remarkable feat of memory and imagination, Lamet recreates the Italy he knew from the perspective of the scared and lonely child he once was. We not only see the hardships and terrors faced by foreign Jews in Fascist Italy, but also the friends Eric makes and his mother's valiant efforts to make a home for him.

In a style as original as his story, the author vividly recalls a dark time yet imbues his recollections with humor, humanity, and wit. Very few Holocaust memoirs address the plight of Jews sent into internal exile in Mussolini's Italy. Lamet offers a rare and historically important portrait, one you will not soon forget.

About the Author

Eric Lamet moved to the United States from Italy in 1950. A retired businessman, he is fluent in several languages, has taught Italian, and has served as an interpreter for the State Department.

Product details

  • Format: Kindle Edition
  • File Size: 1270 KB
  • Print Length: 402 pages
  • Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1440509972
  • Publisher: Adams Media (18 Nov 2010)
  • Sold by: Amazon Media EU S.à r.l.
  • Language English
  • ASIN: B004DI7FJ4
  • Text-to-Speech: Enabled
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #51,281 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful
Fascinating book! 20 Jan 2012
Format:Kindle Edition
This was a fascinating book - creating a window into a world that I never knew existed - the internal exiles that were sent to remote mountain villages in the Second World War. Eric and his mother are sent to a remote village within Italy, this is after fleeing both Austria and then France. It is a tale about growing up, learning, loss, watching your mother grow to love someone else, survival and ultimately being set free and learning to rebuild lives. Excellent story.
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12 of 14 people found the following review helpful
Format:Kindle Edition
When I started this book I didn't think I was going to enjoy it, but it soon grew on me. Not only does it document a rarely discussed aspect of the Second World War, it is a rites of passage story about a young Jewish lad and his mother interned in a remote mountain village in Italy.

The most fascinating aspect is so see Erich (Enrico) grow from a prissy, spoilt Mummy's boy into a young adult, as he learns to cope with disruption, deprivation, prejudice, poverty, squalor, sickness, death and love. The change in the character is so subtly described that the reader is almost unaware of the change as it happens. The lack of sentimentality in the writing only serves to emphasise Erich's experiences.

If I have one criticism, it is that some of the transitions from one piece of narrative to another are rather abrupt, giving the story a slightly disjointed feel in places.
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6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
By Eleni TOP 50 REVIEWER
Format:Kindle Edition
This excellently written book is a recollection of the author's childhood, spent al confino in an almost primitive Italian village, during WW2. In Mussolini's Italy, Jews, foreigners and Italians who opposed the fascist government were placed in restricted areas, in something between concentration camps and house arrest.

The author's story starts in Vienna before the war, when his family had to relocate in order to escape the Nazis. This is a shocking account of how things changed when the Germans took control of Austria and the horrible, cruel and inhuman treatment the Jews had to endure by their old friends and neighbors as well as by the Germans. The author then relates his endless wanderings through France and Italy, looking for safety until the family's ultimate confinement in the Italian village.

When I started reading the book, I thought that it would be an interesting but depressing and gloomy account, but surprisingly it isn't. Indeed some of it is horrifying, brutal and shocking, but the descriptions of places and people are presented through a child's eyes and are fascinating and at times humorous and pleasant. This is perhaps partly because the events, written now by an elderly man are beatified by childhood's memory and imagination and partly due to his mother's effort to make this ordeal as painless as it possibly could be for her eight year old son.

This is more then just a fascinating read; it is a document of a lesser known part of WW2 history. Apart from the wonderfully good and emotional narration, the book includes historical facts, information on the other people confined in the village and what happened to them after the war. In addition, the book includes a very useful, extended glossary at the end, which is a great help, as through the book, the author uses many French, Italian, German and Yiddish words and expressions.

In total, a great book that presents one of the darkest times of history, but also celebrates the beauty and strength of human kindness even in those dark times.

A note on the Kindle edition: the book was extremely easy to download, and a pleasure to read. Although the Kindle English dictionary was helpful at times, it would even be better if it included a multilanguage dictionary as well. I know that it is too much to ask, but perhaps this improvement could be considered for the future.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Amazing!
Absolutely loved this book. Could not put it down. It is a true story about a young boy during the second world war who has to leave his home in Vienna when the war broke out as... Read more
Published 18 hours ago by Bev Allen
great account of a boys wartime experience
found this book informative and touching it opened my eyes about wartime italy and the treatment of jewish people during 30s and 40s would recommend it to anyone you cant fail to... Read more
Published 29 days ago by charlie G
Mans inhumanity to man
Compelling story of sophistocated Jewish mother and son banished to poor village south of Naples. They had to manage somehow although most of te villagers accepted them. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Jg Fergusson
5 Stars +
This is a superbly written story from begining to end. It the best book I have read to date( concerning World War History) & written by the man who lived through it. Read more
Published 2 months ago by mrs gemma davies
A moving book..
A very good book.

I was impressed by this book and the authors way of telling his story. From the moment I got the book I found it really hard to put it down. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mette Kristiansen
different but good
This was a little slow at the beginning and I nearly gave up but I kept going and pleased that I did because the middle to the end was much better. Read more
Published 2 months ago by bennyboy
A Childhood
Am thoroughly enjoying this book. As an Italian who came to UK at the age of two in the fifties, this part of Italian history is unknown to me. Read more
Published 2 months ago by toothpick
A different perspective
I saw this for free on the Kindle Store, otherwise I may not have bought it and would have missed out. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Clare Topping
Interesting and excellent read
Like the other readers of the book this opened my eyes to the experiences of the internal exiles in Italy. Read more
Published 3 months ago by bazzam
A brilliant must read book
This book isn't the kind I would normally go for, I normally read fiction and tend to stay away from books about war but I found the synopsis interesting and thought I would give... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Alice
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Popular Highlights

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&quote;
But if we all keep silent, evil will have won its first victory and, even without going to jail, we will all be prisoners for the rest of our lives. &quote;
Highlighted by 59 Kindle users
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Let's not forget, tyrants have succeeded throughout history because good, naïve people just stood by and did nothing. Fear of war has never stopped despots; it only stopped decent people. &quote;
Highlighted by 49 Kindle users
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What's so sad is that, as decent people lose their courage, the others gain more of theirs. &quote;
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