17 August 1938: The census of Jews in Padua, prelude to persecutions and deportations

On August 11^th, 1938 the Minister of the Interior, Guido Buffarini Guidi, enacted the census of the Italian Jews to be carried out within the 22^nd of the same month. Padua Prefect called the census in Padua and its province on August 17^th, and delivered the collected data within the requested deadline. On this occasion, many Jews complied with the State request as Italian Citizens: they declared their religious faith and their belonging to the Jewish minority.

385 people were registered as Jews in this list. Hence, before WW2, the Jewish Community had about 400 members. This same list was used to arrest the Jews from Padua, after the Nazi’s occupation of Northern Italy (September 8^th, 1943) and after the enactment of the Police Decree n.5. In fact, the Padua Prefettura gave it in to the occupying German headquarters in September 1943.

47 were the Jews from Padua deported to Auschwitz on July 17^th, 1944.

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