Do the right thing.
In Rome on 16 October 1943 the only right thing to do was to give a refuge to those who risked their lives because they were Jews.
The Trella family
decided that they could not turn away and hosted in their apartment in via Olona, in the fairytale
Coppedé district,
the three children of the Supino family who up to that day had led a peaceful life a few houses further on.
That gesture, human yet subversive in the hard times of racial laws, changed the course of the history of the two families
and has survived three generations: the descendants of the Trella and Supino, who are here thanks to that choice, are in fact friends.
Now the 'Civic just', an initiative promoted to remember those who rebelled against anti-Semitism, wanted to include the apartment in via Olona in the solidarity topography of Rome resistant to Nazi-fascism.
The grandchildren of those who helped and those who saved themselves hold the bond between these two families who challenged history while remaining human. Some of them still live in via Olona, like
Paola Supino, daughter of Silvia,
only a little girl at the time, and granddaughter of Paolo and Emma Supino. Others have returned to honor the memory of those who made the right choice such as the actor Giovani Scifoni and his sister Elena, children of Chiara, and grandchildren of
Amalia and Serafino Trella, the couple who rejected indifference
. Paolo Masini, creator and coordinator of the project, brought them together, "to tell a story of hope, because it is thanks to the courage and solidarity of so many Romans that there were those who managed to save themselves from deportation". "My grandmother Amalia never said anything about those terrible days but my mom told me about when the SS knocked on the door and grandmother, after fixing her dress, resolute, managed to convince them and didn't let them in.
The children had hidden under to the bed
", says Elena, daughter of Chiara Trella.
Nonna Amalia was a tough guy, she had a passion for car racing, had a driving license and had enrolled in the ACI of Naples. A daring and unconventional woman, a character who certainly helped her in danger and contributed to the decisive gesture. "I saw the house that saved my mother - says Paola Supino -
and what I want to remember forever is the spontaneous and disinterested gesture of the Trellas who offered to save us
, they knew that my grandparents were in makeshift shelters and asked to be able to take the three children ". The Trellas hardly ever spoke of that choice, "for them it was not a heroic act" and they did not boast: subsequently they were recognized as "Righteous among the Nations" at Yad Vashem.
"Something greater than us binds us, a powerful experience," says
Giovanni Scifoni, now a theater, film and fiction actor
. The mother Chiara told in an interview with some students of those uncertain and dark months. "When one day the three Supino children, Laura, Giulio and Silvia came home, without much explanation from our parents, we were all overjoyed. The drama of the moment was lived in secret only by the parents Trella and Supino.
We children we had been educated not to ask questions
, that living together every minute was enough for us, almost as if we continued our old life in via Olona - recalls Chiara Trella - We played, studied, all with great order and simplicity.
But the Supinos could not go out, the hours were long and Mom tried in every way to distract them from their secrets ".
Laura and Silvia's friendship survived everything, the bad years and the good years.
And it has reached the third generation, heir to that simple yet great gesture
of Amalia and Serafino Trella who knew how to say 'no' to horror.
Because if you are born to someone who did the right thing, that gesture will follow you forever.