Cory Holt

An entry in the Auschwitz log for October 23, 1943, one week following the Roman roundup, reads as follows:
RSHA-Transport, Jews from Rome. After the selection, 148 men registered with numbers 158451-158639 and 47 women registered with numbers 66172-66218 have been admitted to the detention camp. The rest have been gassed.
Of the 148 remaining men, about half went to work at the coal mines of Jawiszowice. Eleven would survive. Forty-two went to recover bricks from the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. Three would survive. The remainder stayed at Auschwitz to work there. None of these would survive. And only one of the forty-seven women who entered the labor camp would survive.
The final numbers are grim. Of the 1,007 Jews who were rounded up that October 16 and eventually deported to Auschwitz, 812 were immediately gassed. Of the remaining 195, only fifteen would survive.
Gianni, meanwhile, waited a week before visiting the nearby morgue. He knew it stood as a means for survival. His brother said he could get food there. Following Lodovico's direction, he found the dark alley which led to the back entrance of the morgue. Once there, he nervously knocked on the door. He tried to appear routine. Finally, the door was opened a crack. Someone inside looked at him and asked what business he had. Gianni answered that he had come to buy some food. He did not tell them he was hiding Jews.
"Do you have someone in need?" the man asked him.
"Yes."
Gianni was allowed inside. Unaware of the massive operation taking place inside the building, Gianni asked for some bread and eggs. The gentleman who had let him inside walked into another room and returned a few moments later with a half-loaf of day-old bread and five eggs, for which Gianni was grateful. He paid the gentleman for the goods, thanked him, and left.
The morgue served as a distribution center for food inside Rome. While it was difficult to obtain food from the outside, those who managed the distribution relied on contributions from ordinary people for their means. A baker might bake an extra loaf or two of bread and quietly send the goods to the morgue, or someone might have accumulated a cellar full of canned vegetables during the years, and he or she might give a can or two a week. Others maintained rooftop gardens in which they grew tomatoes and zucchini during the spring, summer, and early fall, and they might also contribute. This collection of food was delivered clandestinely to collection points across the city, and the food was then placed in body bags and delivered by ambulance to the morgue every afternoon.
However, the collection fell woefully short of the amount needed to adequately feed those in hiding, but for many, it was the difference between living and dying. The operation at the morgue was simply another means in the mass struggle for survival.
But the food shortage was becoming severe, nonetheless. The ration cards proved insufficient in allowing adequate sustenance. One might wait in line at the baker's, and when he got to the front, find there was no more bread. Getting potatoes and cheese was nearly impossible. Nearly everyone worked clandestinely to buy food on the black market. But despite their endeavor, hunger was widespread across the city. And the Germans were settling in for a long occupation.
It seemed to Gianni Farnese, as it must have seemed to many Romans, that the harder he worked to acquire food, the hungrier he and the Levi's became. Realistically, two ration cards and a few extra items purchased on the black market every few days were hardly sufficient in satisfying the appetites of five people. Even though the Levis were all relatively small of stature and now sedentary, thereby requiring little food for sustenance, they still found themselves hungry. Although, for their gratefulness, they never complained. They understood Gianni was risking his life in acquiring what food he could. Their situation, they knew, could have been far worse.
Gianni never understood the Nazis. Few did. For all of the good they were going to bring the world, why did widespread death and hunger follow them across Europe? Why must everyone live in fear? Why must everyone suffer? What good was there to be found? It was all, Gianni concluded, more than a struggle for survival, although survival was the most basic endeavor. Good must win over evil. It always had.