Italian Jewish Holocaust Survivor Named Senator For Life
ROME (JTA) – Italy has conferred one of its highest honors on one of the few Italian Jews who survived Auschwitz.
In a decree issued Friday, Italian President Sergio Mattarella named Liliana Segre, 87, a Senator for Life – and he personally phoned her to tell her the news.
The recognition was announced in the run-up to the commemoration of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27, and received wide coverage in local media.
Italy this year is marking the 80th anniversary of the imposition of anti-Semitic racial laws in 1938. “Life is very strange,” Segre said she told Mattarella when he called. “I’m so old that unfortunately I remember the racist laws from 80 years ago. At that time, my fault was having been born.” Today, she continued in an interview with the Jewish publication Pagine Ebraiche, “it’s being recognized as a merit.”
Born in Milan, Segre, was deported to Auschwitz at the age of 13 with her father and about 600 others on Jan. 30, 1944. Segre was among only 22 who survived. Her father died in Auschwitz, as did her paternal grandparents who were deported later.
More than 8,000 Jews were deported from Italy, most of them to Auschwitz. Only about 1,000 survived. It is believed that out of 776 children under the age of 14 deported from Italy to Auschwitz, only 25 survived – Segre among them.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Dive In
-
Fast Forward Trump on Iran: ‘If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack’ into war
-
Fast Forward What the election of Mark Carney would mean for Canadian Jews and Israel
-
Fast Forward Over 500 rabbis sign letter rejecting Trump’s antisemitism agenda
-
Fast Forward AJC, USC Shoah Foundation announce partnership to document antisemitism since World War II
Most Popular
- 1
Culture Trump wants to honor Hannah Arendt in a ‘Garden of American Heroes.’ Is this a joke?
- 2
Opinion The dangerous Nazi legend behind Trump’s ruthless grab for power
- 3
Fast Forward The invitation said, ‘No Jews.’ The response from campus officials, at least, was real.
- 4
Opinion A Holocaust perpetrator was just celebrated on US soil. I think I know why no one objected.
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Trump on Iran: ‘If we don’t make a deal, I’ll be leading the pack’ into war
-
Opinion No, Pete Hegseth and Itamar Ben-Gvir don’t look alike — but that’s where the differences end
-
News Why Zohran Mamdani believes he’ll win over Jewish voters, as Israel critic surges to second behind Cuomo in NYC mayoral race
-
Fast Forward What the election of Mark Carney would mean for Canadian Jews and Israel
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.