After his election as President of the Jewish Community of Venice, Giuseppe Jona will commit himself to defending it against attacks by the press and fascists.
On October 18, 1941, he went to the editor of the local newspaper Il Gazzettino to tell him:
“I am not so naïve as to ask you for retractions or corrections. I come to ask you something much simpler: I ask you to know in the future to keep a greater extent in your campaign of persecution. You know that we are a target without defense. We cannot react violently, because that would lead to a massacre. We cannot react by legal means, because we would be unheard.”
After September 8, 1943 Jona chose to stay in Venice as a reference for those who did not want or could not escape.
Faced with a request from the German authorities to hand over an up-to-date list of Jews remaining in the city and fears that they might force him to cooperate, he took his own life on September 17, 1943.
Gli ebrei a Venezia 1938 – 1945, a cura di Renata Segre, il Cardo, Venezia, 1995, pp. 89.
Jona, Giuseppe (1866 – 1943)
