A ceremony will be held on Sunday, September 7 in Prunetta, located in Pistoia’s Apennine mountains, commemorating two Jewish families—the Fisers and De Coris—rounded up while hiding from Nazi forces. Deported to extermination camps in January 1944, the families will be honored with 11 “stumbling stones” (pietre d’inciampo), each inscribed with a victim’s name and dates, installed in the village.
Among the attendees is a member of the Gassman family, invited because Giuseppina Ambron—one of the women sheltered in Prunetta—was the maternal aunt of legendary actor Vittorio Gassman. Gassman occasionally visited her grave at Prunetta’s cemetery after performances at Pistoia’s Teatro Manzoni. Ambron’s headstone, recently recovered during cemetery relocation work, will be rededicated alongside the stumbling stones. She survived the camps but died in the 1950s.
Massimiliano Fiser, the sole survivor of the roundup, will also attend. Born September 6, 1943, he was an infant when his family was arrested and was saved by a Pistoia family. Fiser now resides in Turin.
The event begins at 4 PM at Prunetta’s Garden of Memory, the former site of the old cemetery. It draws inspiration from Andrea Lottini’s book “Vite Sospese. Memorie e storie della Shoah nel pistoiese” (Suspended Lives: Memories and Stories of the Shoah in Pistoia), supported by the Tuscany Region, Pistoia Province, and San Marcello Piteglio Municipality. Organized by the Proloco association, it receives funding from the Regional Council of Tuscany.
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