Carlo was born in 1938 in Milan, Italy. His parents were industrious and well-educated; they were representative of a large number of Italian Jews who had long assimilated into cultural, social and economic life there.Mussolini passed anti-Jewish legislation in November of 1938, coinciding with Kristallnacht in Germany. In Italy, Jews could no longer work or go to school. Carlo's father lost his job as a clerical worker and things became financially difficult for the family. When Hitler invaded Italy in September of 1941, four-year old Carlo and his family were evacuated to a small town to escape the bombings. In October, the Germans began rounding up Italian Jews for deportation to the death camps.
On November 5, 1943, the Fascist Militia and German SS discovered Carlo, his parents, and his little brother. Four days later they were forced to board an overcrowded, unsanitary cattle car in Florence. This train was the second deportation to leave Italy for the death camps; it carried 400 Jews to Auschwitz.
Carlo and his family died in the gas chambers in Auschwitz. Carlo was not yet five years old.
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