Book Description

This is the story of a young Italian Jew who in 1938 in response to the enactment by the Fascist government of antisemitic legislation decided that he should leave his comfortable home in Milano with his mother and sister and seek refuge first in England and later in the United States. However, as the result of Italy's entry in the war, he faced unexpected obstacles and real dangers. On June 11, 1940 when he was ready to board the Britannic and sail to New York from Liverpool, he was arrested as an enemy alien. A few days laer he was shipped behind barbed wire across the Atlantic, then infested with German U boats, interned in Canada for fourteen months as a prisoner of war. Eventually his status as a "refugee" was recognized by the British Government but legal technicalities prevented his immigration to the US from Canada and imposed a detour to Cuba. Finally after a long wait and with the sponsorship of Arturo Toscanini he was able to rejoin his mother and sister in New York just a few days before Pearl Harbor. Giulio L. Cantoni, an internationally known biochemist, has served for forty years as Laboratory Chief at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda. He has published more than 150 papers and is a co-author of several scientific books. He is a member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the Italian Academy of Science. In 1968 he founded and now directs the FAES Chamber of Music Concert Series at NIH, generally regarded as the best in the Washington area. He lives in Bethesda with his wife of 35 years.