It Happened In Italy by Elizabeth Bettina

It Happened In Italy is a beautiful and untold story of the Jewish people who were in Italy during the Holocaust. After seeing the pictures and reading the stories of the six million Jews that were killed under the evil regime of Nazi Germany, it is refreshing to see that there were people who were willing to die to save others.

This book takes you on a journey of thankfulness. 30,000 Jewish people are alive because of the goodness of the Italian people. Italy even helped a thousand people get to America to find safety. We follow them on their journey back to the place that saved their lives. Each one of the survivors tells the same story. They would not be alive if it were not for the Italian people. No one died in the concentration camps in Italy. There were no smoke stacks. The people kept there were treated like human beings. They played sports, got married, had children, and ate very well. This was a far cry from Auschwitz where people were put into the gas chambers.

This book is an encouragement to all believers. We have the power to not follow the crowd and give life when the world around us is bent on taking it. Read it and be inspired. I was, page by page, moved by the goodness of the Italian people during times when it was life-threatening to be kind to a Jew. The story of each person touched my spirit and made me desire that kind of goodness myself. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Elizabeth's account of the loving-kindness of the Italians. Her writing style is conversational and easy to read. I highly recommend this book to everyone who loves history. This is a rare and beautiful tale of goodness and a very special people.

I love the way Elizabeth ends the book. "The most educated people in the world at the time created the Holocaust and the "Final Solution." Yet in many cases, it was the simple people, the "uneducated" people who saved the Jews. Simple goodness triumphed over sophisticated evil."