Caption for Sabina Saad's painting "Alexander Family", which had been shown in her exhibit "Dialog with the Yellow Star" in Mazkeret Batya from 28-3-2009:
Size: 50X35 Acrylic and pencil on canvas.
4 Yellow Badges representing
the hiding of four members of Alexander Family in an attic during the Nazi regime in Italy. Behind the attic Sabina's story about her Alexander family in Italian.In 1934, the Alexander family that included my grandfather, Paul Leopold, my grandmother Margareta, my uncle Hans, My mother Anni, fled from Leipzig, Germany. They fled to Milan in Italy and remained there until 1939 when my grandfather was arrested. After a month in the jail St. Vittore he was transferred to the concentration camp in Ferramonti in Calabria in south Italy. After three years he was transferred to Fanzolo in the area of Treviso. The other family members joined him in 1943, thinking that the war ended since the Italians surrendered to the Allies. However, the Germans invaded Italy and the family was compelled to find a hideaway. Firstly, they hid in the attic of Tessaro family, and later in the attic of their sister in law Olivia. After the Germans located their headquarters nearby, the small family (with the help of Reverend Don Giuseppe Casarin) found refuge in the Temple of the Madonna Del Caravaggio, where they stayed until the end of the war, and thus they were saved. I, Sabina Saad, the daughter of Anni Alexander, have four children: Kuki, Itai, Noa and Eliel and six grandsons. I live in Israel. My cousin Roberto, the son of Hans, lives in Switzerland and has two children: Jonah and Elianah.Paul Leopold Alexander1893-1967.Margareta Alexander1896-1952
Sabina Saad wrote
Elsa Alexander was not Jewish. She was married To Sigmond Alexander who was my grandfather's brother Paul. Her daughter, Inge, born in 1917 perished in the Holocaust.
Walter Alexander was one of eight brothers of my grandfather Paul (they were nine brothers, all sons, he was one before last), he fought for the Germans in the First World War. He was injured by a horse's kick in the head, and a bomb exploded next to him. Following he was hospitalized in a mental hospital. According to my mother, he perished in the Holocaust
Else and Inge Alexander
Walter Alexander
