Eternal

At one point, Massimo Simone claims “We are history” (111), highlighting the long history of antisemitism in Rome and Europe as a whole. Sandro recounts the history of the Ghetto, including its confinement of Jewish people until the reunification of Italy in 1870. He and others suffer antisemitism when Mussolini’s race laws call “native” Italian identity into question. Laws like the prohibition against intermarriage and control of property also have historical precedent. The Lateran Decrees of 1215, promulgated by the Roman Catholic Church, codified many of the regulations that later defined mistreatment of Jewish people during the early and mid-20th century—including barring Jewish people from holding office and requiring identifiers on clothes.

Jewish people were targeted as early as the Middle Ages, with pogroms (organized massacres) taking place across Europe. Rumors of Jewish involvement in the Black Death (ca. 1348) painted the population as murderous and opposed to Christianity. One such rumor was blood libel—the false accusation that Jewish people used the blood of Christians, particularly children, for religious ceremonies—which can be seen in The Peterborough Chronicle and Geoffrey Chaucer’s Prioress’s Tale. Furthermore, texts like William Shakespeare’s Merchant of Venice frame Jewish people as obsessed with money. With this history in mind, Massimo and Gemma’s wish for their children to marry Jewish and Italian spouses comes from fear. In both real life and the novel, the Pope’s efforts were seen as lacking, as they were influenced by centuries of Christian efforts to convert and oppress Jewish people. His intervention, or lack thereof, invited controversy and criticism, highlighted by the absence of his portrait in Nonna’s house. In real life, historians continue to study the Vatican’s private archives of Pope Pius XII (1939-1958), with the full picture of Vatican involvement with resistance against Hitler, Mussolini, and antisemitic efforts remaining to be seen.