Johanna Bishop translated Rossella Levi’s “No Act of Betrayal” for us at Gidari Publishing, making Rossella’s words sing in English. But it was Johanna’s reading of Renato Levi’s words from the book at the 19 October 2023 event at Biblioteca Marucelliana that gave life to him for the audience.
Here are Renato’s words from his journal years after the War, setting the stage for the tragic events in Florence that would become known as Radio CORA, as translated and read by Bishop:
“I’m Jewish, from Trieste, born 71 years ago. In ’39 I was thrown out of the Navy after eight years of service, mostly on submarines, due to the infamous race laws. There was no more work for any of us in Italy, not even the humblest job. What could one do? With the help of that saint Cantoni, I emigrated to France. … I made the acquaintance of Mr. Donati, head of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Paris, and just when things were looking up, the war broke out. I volunteered for the duration. In October I was called up and sent to Sidi Bel Abbès with the Foreign Legion, where I found—aside from the riffraff of the legion itself—lots of other recruits like me, Jews of all professions, writers, directors, musicians, dancers, etc, exiles from Italy, from Poland… After a few months of training, they sent me first to Colomb Béchar, then to Reggane, in the middle of the Sahara, where the temperature almost always reached 48-50 degrees Celsius [118-122° F] in the shade. The mirage effect made me see submarines on the desert plain.”
“At one point I was near death from viral hepatitis. I was down to 47 kg [104 lb]. They all thought I was a goner, including the nurse I asked for a glass of water in the morning — even though all the doctors, the night before, when they believed me to be in a coma, had said I wouldn’t be long for this world. There was so much sadness and suffering, but what’s the point of describing it? Lice, stings from scorpions … horned vipers, interrogations.”
“Finally, the Allies landed in North Africa. Our torturers, our German overseers, turned into bleating sheep. They begged for mercy, spoke of their families. No one laid a finger on them. We weren’t like the cowardly Germans, who were savage with the vanquished and servile with the victors.”
“The way we were treated changed overnight.… I waited until an Allied commission came to question us about our backgrounds, our skills. With me they were really amazing. Those tall officers who offered me cigarettes, provisions, etc., asking in the end if I wanted to join the Allied army.… A group of officers urged me to enter the intelligence service, explaining that Italy would soon surrender and we had to hasten Germany’s final defeat. I signed up! I had to take a parachuting course, and they gave me very thorough training about how to behave, how to operate, how to decode messages, about my new personality, my invented past, and all of that helped save my hide on many occasions.”
….
[Renato was sent to Bari, and paired with another agent, Pasqualin, for their mission behind enemy lines in the north of Italy.]
“We set off from Barletta on a fishing boat with electric motors and landed with a small raft on the coast near Porto Corsini. Once again, we were helped out by good luck. The coast was full of barbed wire and full of sentinels. More than once we froze at a call of “who goes there” in German and were forced to circle around for miles, only to find ourselves back where we started. But somehow we got past the blockade, found a country road, and after untold kilometers, reached a farmhouse. In the meantime the leaden dawn of a Romagna winter had come. That night I passed blood in my urine because of the cold and stress….
[The two of them then managed to reach Ravenna]
“I don’t remember if it was that night or the next morning, but we took a train on the Faenza line to Florence. By sheer luck, or whatever, we managed to reach Pasqualin’s house on Via Barbano with the most precious thing we had: the radio!”
This is just the prologue.”
Why “just the prologue?” Because now the adventure of Radio CORA begins with his central role in the clandestine operation and the ultimate false accusation of his betrayal years later.
Our next post will continue with the Radio CORA story in Renato’s words, and you can buy the book No Act of Betrayal on Amazon here.