Close-up of the donor's father, Nandor Bergl at the entrance to the Cinecitta DP camp in Rome, Italy, in 1947.

Cinecittà

Situated in Rome, Cinecittà served as the administrative capital for DPs in Italy, and as a DP camp that housed 680 Jewish refugees in 1947. The camp was founded by the Allied Commission in 1945, and a synagogue and nursery were established on the premises. During that year, the camp reached a capacity of 1,800 Jewish and non-Jewish DPs. The executive staff of the Joint in Italy met there and the Central Committee of Liberated Jews in Italy (also called the Merkaz ha-Plitim) convened and published the chief Jewish DP newspaper of Italy, Baderekh (On the Way). Most issues of the Italian DP press were printed by various political groups in Cinecittà, including the Farn Folk of the former partisans, Undzer Vort of the Poalei Zion Hitachdut (Association of Zionist Workers), Al Chofim of the Histadrut yechud ha-Tsionim ha-Kelaliyim be-Italiyah (Organization of Unified General Zionists in Italy), and the Natsyonaler Informatsye Byuletin by the Italian chapter of Beit Trumpeldor. Cinecittà was a gathering center for many of the approximately 2,550 Jewish DPs (nearly one of every five Jewish refugees in Italy, according to the Italian Central Committee in 1946) who did not live in United Nations-recognized DP camps or refugee agricultural centers.