MY GRATITUDE TO MY FIRST READER, my wife, for having faith in me during this four-year process. Thank you to Michael Mirolla, Publisher and Editor-in-Chief of Guernica Editions, for publishing this novel as part of the Essential Prose Series, works which deal with “the pleasurable understanding of different cultures.” My hope is that this novel will lead to better understanding of the Italian American experience during World War II and the survival of Italian Jews during the Holocaust. Martha Hughes, a novelist, was most helpful with advice on the first draft through an N.Y.U. program. Editor/novelist Maxine Swann read the entire work and provided many useful suggestions. My good friends, Richard Holz and Pete Smith, carefully read and critiqued the chapter on boating and military history, respectively. Thanks also to the members of MCCA for their support of all my literary endeavors.