MEMORY – Farewell to Roberto (Roby) Bassi (1931-2025)
Roberto (Roby) Bassi, an esteemed figure in the Italian and European Jewish world, passed away on March 1. Born in Venice, he was a professor of dermatology. The author of numerous scientific works, he was one of the pioneers of the psychosomatic medicine in Italy, becoming president of the Italian Society of Psychosomatic Medicine and a lecturer in psycho-somatic dermatology at the University of Ferrara.
He founded and was the first director of the Jewish Contemporary Documentary Center (CDEC), which he led from 1955 to 1958. He was also President of the Jewish Community of Venice and Vice-President of the Union of the Italian Jewish Communities (UCEI).
As a child, he escaped the racial laws and Nazi-fascist persecutions by flying with his family to Rome, right after the massive Nazi roundup of Rome’s Jews. He described that time in his compelling and nuanced memoir, Skirmishes on Lake Ladoga (CPL Editions, 2014, intro by Daniel Mendelsohn). “The ghosts of my uncles and my cousins, my friends and classmates, little Sara G., all killed by the Fascists and the Nazis, have populated my childhood and youth and conditioned my whole life,” he wrote. And he always honored the commitment to remember and bear testimony of that horror.
“Roby Bassi spent the post-war years immersed in his studies—becoming one of the most renowned dermatologists and a pioneer in the psychosomatic approach—while nurturing dreams and plans of aliyah to Israel and actively engaging in both Jewish and civil society politics,” wrote Gadi Luzzatto Voghera, director of CDEC, on Pagine Ebraiche. “A committed socialist, he played a key role in the Federation of Young Italian Jews (FGEI) and was instrumental in the founding of CDEC).”
“As historian Liliana Picciotto recalled: ‘His first office was his tiny student room, his first desk a rickety table, and his first ‘bookshelf’ the floor under his bed. That’s where the first books and documents began to arrive, collected by a network of young collaborators scattered throughout Italy—people whom Roby inspired to participate. It was an unusual method at the time, but one that yielded great results. One of the first initiatives, which paved the way for many others, was a census of Jewish partisans in Italy, using specially designed records. The goal was to prove that not all Jews passively submitted to their extermination – many actively resisted.’”
“As the current director of the CDEC, I write to express my gratitude to Roby for this youthful vision, which has had profound and lasting impact,” concludes Luzzatto Voghera. “His work was never just about collecting evidence of persecution; it was above all a testament to the conscious political militancy in the anti-fascist and anti-Nazi struggle. Soon, the website www.resistentiebrei.it will provide access to the biographies of the hundreds of young men and women Roby Bassi first identified—helping us, in the coming weeks, to mark with awareness the 80th anniversary of April 25, 1945, the day that marked the beginning of our freedom.”