Letter to Polina Berghiner
Object numberM2023/037:001
TitleLetter to Polina Berghiner
DescriptionLetter in Italian to Polina Berghiner from a teacher at Carlo Poerio elementary school in Milan, relating to the impact of the 1938 Italian anti-jewish decree on her daughter Dorothy. The letter informs Polina that her daughter will no longer be permitted to study at the school. The teacher, Pia Griffini, expresses their sorrow that this is the case and provides advice on obtaining Italian citizenship that might allow her to continue.
Attached to the letter is an original news clipping regarding the expulsion of Jewish Students without Italian citizenship from Italian public schools.
Part of a collection of material relating to Dorothy Parker, nee Berghiner.
Dorothy Berghiner was born in 1929 in Reni, Bessarabia, Romania. She was the only child of Jewish doctors Itzec Berghiner and Polina née Rosenzweig. The family left Reni in 1932 and moved to Milan, Italy. Dorothy attended elementary school in Milan, however, in 1938 her life was upended. Mussolini’s ’Racial Laws’ prohibited Jewish children who did not have Italian citizenship from attending public schools. Worse still, the law decreed that all ‘alien Jews’ who had arrived in Italy after January 1919 had to leave the country by March 1939 or face expulsion.
The Berghiner family fled Italy to Singapore, via Bangkok, Thailand. Nearing the end of 1941, as Singapore faced the threat of invasion by the Japanese, twelve-year-old Dorothy was sent to safety in the small wheatbelt town of Corrigin, Western Australia. She was placed under the guardianship of Dr Avrum Einihovici, a friend and former colleague of her parents. Dorothy’s parents were evacuated from Singapore to Bombay.
After the war and high-school, Dorothy was reunited with her parents in Bombay. The family returned to Singapore in 1947. After one year, Dorothy returned alone to Australia to pursue higher education. She studied Medicine at the University of Western Australia before switching to Law, graduating in 1951. In the 1960s she completed her second degree, Arts majoring in Anthropology. As a lecturer and researcher at the University of Western Australia, Dorothy focussed on class, race and gender issues, especially concerning injustice in the legal system and the impact on indigenous communities and women. She was a feminist, an anti-racism activist and a supporter of refugee rights until her death in 2019.
Attached to the letter is an original news clipping regarding the expulsion of Jewish Students without Italian citizenship from Italian public schools.
Part of a collection of material relating to Dorothy Parker, nee Berghiner.
Dorothy Berghiner was born in 1929 in Reni, Bessarabia, Romania. She was the only child of Jewish doctors Itzec Berghiner and Polina née Rosenzweig. The family left Reni in 1932 and moved to Milan, Italy. Dorothy attended elementary school in Milan, however, in 1938 her life was upended. Mussolini’s ’Racial Laws’ prohibited Jewish children who did not have Italian citizenship from attending public schools. Worse still, the law decreed that all ‘alien Jews’ who had arrived in Italy after January 1919 had to leave the country by March 1939 or face expulsion.
The Berghiner family fled Italy to Singapore, via Bangkok, Thailand. Nearing the end of 1941, as Singapore faced the threat of invasion by the Japanese, twelve-year-old Dorothy was sent to safety in the small wheatbelt town of Corrigin, Western Australia. She was placed under the guardianship of Dr Avrum Einihovici, a friend and former colleague of her parents. Dorothy’s parents were evacuated from Singapore to Bombay.
After the war and high-school, Dorothy was reunited with her parents in Bombay. The family returned to Singapore in 1947. After one year, Dorothy returned alone to Australia to pursue higher education. She studied Medicine at the University of Western Australia before switching to Law, graduating in 1951. In the 1960s she completed her second degree, Arts majoring in Anthropology. As a lecturer and researcher at the University of Western Australia, Dorothy focussed on class, race and gender issues, especially concerning injustice in the legal system and the impact on indigenous communities and women. She was a feminist, an anti-racism activist and a supporter of refugee rights until her death in 2019.
Production date 1938 - 1938
Object nameletters
Materialpaper