Product Description

This beautifully descriptive narrative tells the story of Giuseppe Pardo Roques, parnas (lay leader) of the Sephardic Jewish community of Pisa, and of his death at the hands of the Nazis. In 1944, the German army was making a vicious and fierce retreat through northern Italy, and despite the obvious danger to himself and his guests, Pardo remained in his home in hopes that the respect he had gained with the leaders of Pisa would provide sanctuary from the coming menace. Without sermonizing or assigning an easy explanation to a mysterious drama, the author gives an overview of Italian-Jewish history, a description of war-torn Italy, and a dramatic account of the process of self-understanding in the face of death itself.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #696308 in Books
• Published on: 2000-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 147 pages

From Library Journal
"Arieti's account demonstrates an important principle of emotional dynamics: mental illness may provide in some individuals a constructive focus for noble and selfless actions," said LJ's reviewer of this portrait of Giuseppe Pardo, the congregational leader of Jews in Pisa, Italy, in 1944. Despite his position, he suffered from extreme phobias, including an absolute fear of animals, and he rarely strayed outdoors. Arieti, a psychologist, traces the last weeks of Pardo's life prior to his murder by the Reich. Pardo's story, however, is also a psychological treatise on a rare form of mental illness. (LJ 9/1/79)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
"One of the most extraordinary stories yet to reach us from the bitter ashes of Nazism." -The New York Times Book Review -- (The New York Times Book Review)

Chosen as one of the Best Books of 1979 by The New York Times Book Review

The psychoanalyst who grew up in Pisa, Italy, tells the story of the end of its Sephardic Jewish leader, "the Parnas," at the hands of the Nazis. Chilling and compellingly well told. -- The New York Times Book Review Best Books of 1979

About the Author
Silvano Arieti was born in Pisa, where his family belonged to the synagogue of which Giuseppe Pardo was the parnas. He immigrated to New York in 1939 and wrote many works on mental illness and the nature of the human psyche. He won the National Book Award for Science in 1975. His works on Jewish themes include The Parnas and Abraham and the Contemporary Mind. He passed away in 1981.

Customer Reviews

A Book to Reckon With
Pisa, Italy. July, 1944. As the Nazis and Allies collide, Giuseppe Pardo Roques, lay leader of Pisa's Jewish community, is a refugee in his own home. Struggling to display strength in spite of a bizarre and debilitating neurosis, the cultured, learned and generous Pardo plays host to several others, Jews and Christians both, seeking shelter from the battle. The Parnas reconstructs Pardo's final days and his ultimate confrontation with the Nazis. At once memoir (the author knew the characters), psychological profile, and meditation on good and evil, the book's defining quality is compassion. I'll read it again.

Psychiatric Insight and Storyteller's Gift
This is an incredible story.

Silvano Arieti was an extremely gifted, and very well known, psychiatrist. He was born in Pisa, Italy and, as a child, looked to The Parnas--or synagogue leader, Giuseppe Pardo Roques--as a mentor. The Parnas was mentally ill. His illness inspired Arieti's career--which, as it developed, convinced Arieti all the more that "mental illness may...espress the nobility of man."

Arieti dreamed he would one day cure The Parnas, but The Parnas was murdered by the Nazis in WWII. Decades later, Arieti recreates the last days of The Parnas, providing us with a moving potrait of an incredible man in terrible times.

While Arieti's conclusions are profound, this book is definately accessible to the high school reader.

Excellent book!
Insightful,analytical and comprehensive portrait of a loving character.Is a masterpiece. Full of drama,but it was a real life drama.The "parnas" was a sensitive man struggling with his own imaginative fears but valiantly facing the real fear.