The monument to the victims of the Holocaust in Ghetto Nuovo (New) Square in Venice

On one side of the Ghetto Nuovo Square in Venice there is a new monument, created in 1980, which consists of seven bronze panels, by the artist Arbit Blatas (1908 - 1999), to remember the victims of the Nazi deportation.

In fact, not many of the Jews who lived in Venice were deported to concentration camps during the Nazi occupation of the city in 1943, thanks to the courage and determination of Giuseppe Jona, head of the Jewish Community of Venice during the Second World War.

When the Nazis occupied Venice, they asked Giuseppe Jona, an esteemed physician, to bring a list of all the Jews living in Venice to their headquarters, which he had in his possession. Instead, on the morning of the delivery Jona decided to burn the list and took his own life, fearing obvious reprisals.

Thanks to his sacrifice, the Nazis were never able to locate the Venetian Jews, and so only 243 were deported, while the other members of the community, about 1200 people, managed to escape.

Of the 243 who were taken to Auschwitz only 8 returned home.