A Small World Full of Voices
At Via Vignatagliata 79, in the heart of Ferrara’s former ghetto, a second-floor apartment once echoed with the laughter of children. It was the home and classroom of Gina Finzi Schonheit, born in 1901 to Emma Balboni and Carlo Finzi. Her family was poor, but she managed to become a qualified elementary school teacher—the only one among her siblings to do so.
She lived and worked in the same building as the Jewish elementary school, where she taught generations of children before the war.
The School as a Sanctuary
When the racial laws of 1938 forced Jewish students out of public education, Gina refused to abandon her mission. She organized lessons, theatre plays, and summer camps, transforming her apartment into a place of joy and normality in a time of exclusion. Her husband, Carlo Schonheit, was a modest salesman; their life was simple, their world small, but their commitment immense.
The Courage of the Ordinary
In February 1944, Gina, her husband, and their son Franco were arrested and deported—she to Ravensbrück, they to Buchenwald. Against all odds, the family survived. They returned to Ferrara, to the same apartment, now scarred but standing. Later they moved to Via Palestro, and finally to Milan, where Gina resumed teaching and organized summer camps in Riccione.
She never spoke publicly about her deportation, but her silence was not forgetfulness—it was protection. For her, rebuilding life was her victory.
The window on Via Vignatagliata, where she once watched her students arrive, remains the threshold of that quiet heroism.
Le Case di Micòl is a project funded by the CERV – Remembrance 2022 call and coordinated by Ferrara La Città del Cinema. Partners include: Prague Film School, Warsaw Film School, ACT (Belgium), Blow-Up Film and TV Academy (Italy), Fondazione per il centro studi ‘Città di Orvieto’, Fondazione Giorgio Bassani, MEIS – National Museum of Italian Judaism and the Shoah, Institute of Contemporary History of Ferrara, and Luigi Einaudi Upper Secondary School of Ferrara