Please join us for a lecture by Denis Passalent.
Denis will be sharing his personal story about the Gentilli Family.
Moisè Vittorio Gentilli was born in Mereto di Tomba (UD) in 1894, where his parents moved a year before from San Daniele del Friuli. He continued his father’s grocery business in the small village. He married Norma Stella Colombo in 1921. In 1930 the couple moved to Venice where they directed the local Jewish Nursing Home. On 2nd December 1943 they were arrested in Olgiate Comasco, while trying to escape to Switzerland. Deported temporarily to Fossoli, they were sent to Auschwitz in February 1944 with five other close relatives.
They never came back.
Denis decided to investigate the experiences of this family, “because their life and their tragedy must not be forgotten”
Image | Davide Merello’s illustration
Denis was born in Udine and moved to Venice at the age of 18 to start his tertiary education at Cà Foscari University in Linguistics. After attending a Harvard Summer School, Denis completed my Masters at Université Aix-Marseille (France) and ACU (Australia).
Denis based in Melbourne since 2015 where he currently works as a Secondary School Teacher and Head of Faculty for Languages. Among his fields of interest, Denis is passionate about Jewish studies and the experiences of Holocaust survivors.
