Back in 1997, I wrote a short novel (or a long short story) — perhaps 20,000 words — about a Roman man who hides a family of Jews (the Levi family, pronounced LEH-vee) in his cellar during the Nazi occupation of World War II. I wrestled around for years to come up with a title, and settled on This Was Not My Home. I had to read several books in order to be able to write the story with some historical accuracy, two of which were Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism, and The Garden of Finzi-Continis. I can't pin down the rest. At any rate, I've decided to publish This Was Not My Home here on Right Minded one chapter at a time. There's even a special category over there on the right under "Writings" where the various chapters will be filed, for the one or two of you who might actually read the thing.
The Roman Ghetto was the site where the Nazi roundup took place the morning the Levi family escaped. The heart of the Ghetto runs along a street called "Via del Portico d'Ottavia," which I actually walked right down the middle of on one of my trips to Rome when I was stationed over there. I didn't even realize the historical significance of where I was at the time (although I do have a photograph of the roof of the Jewish Synagogue from a distance). I could kick myself.
At the time I wrote This Was Not My Home, there wasn't a whole lot of stuff on the Internet about such a narrow topic. Now, things are different, and I'm sure if I sat down all over again to write that book, I'd have a great deal more information to work with. But it is what it is, and I've sat on the manuscript for too long without sharing it.