Ottolenghi's Testimony

Gustavo Ottolenghi

Gustavo Ottolenghi was born in 1932 in Turin, Italy, from Jewish parents.

As Gustavo turned 9, his father separated from his family under the pressure of a nationwide antisemitic rise. Shortly after, Ottolenghi decided to join a partisan brigade from which he found help and support throughout this tragic period.

Under the Resistance, Gustavo’s duties included watchtower shifts, monitoring the possible arrival of Nazi convoys, and providing updated information to civilians. Mr. Ottolenghi recalled this experience as being meaningful, yet painstaking, as he was forced to make between twenty to thirty trips on foot wearing wooden clogs.

For safety reasons, Ottolenghi didn’t receive any formal education until he joined the brigade. Upon the ending of the war, he returned to the place where he last met his parents, however, no trace of them was found. Luckily, three days later, his father showed up. Her mother arrived on the following day and his life improved there on.

Mr. Ottolenghi is remembered as the Head of Radiology at the Sanremo Hospital, as the doctor of the renowned Overland truck expeditions, as a writer and author of Holocaust as well as Contemporary History books. Finally, he also served as a military doctor for the Italian Navy.