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Finci and Musafia families papers
LSC.2431
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Contributing Institution:
UCLA Library Special Collections
Title: Finci and Musafia families papers
Creator:
Finci family
Creator:
Musafia family
source:
Finci, Al
source:
Finci, Rose
Identifier/Call Number: LSC.2431
Physical Description:
1 linear feet
(1 box, 1 half box, 1 flat box)
Date (inclusive): 1930s-2000
Abstract: The collection consists of family photographs and records of the Finci-Musafia family documenting their life in pre-WWII Sarajevo,
their experience in the Holocaust in Italy and Switzerland, their emigration to the United States, and their life in Los Angeles.
Physical Location: Stored off-site. Advance notice is required for access to the collection. All requests to access special collections materials
must be made in advance using the request button located on this page.
Language of Material: Primarily in English and Serbo-Croatian. Some materials are in German, Italian, and Ladino.
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Copyright to portions of this collection has been assigned to the UCLA Library Special Collections. The library can grant
permission to publish for materials to which it holds the copyright. All requests for permission to publish must be submitted
in writing to Library Special Collections. Credit shall be given as follows: The Regents of the University of California on
behalf of the UCLA Library Special Collections.
Immediate Source of Acquisition
Gift of Al and Rose Finci, 2017.
UCLA Catalog Record ID:
9919237760006531
[Identification of item], Finci and Musafia families papers (Collection 2431). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E.
Young Research Library. University of California, Los Angeles.
Processed by Rachel Smith in 2023 under the supervision of Courtney Dean in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT).
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Joseph Finci was born December 9, 1895 and Lenka Finci (neé Musafia) was born December 17, 1904, both in Sarajevo. They were
members of the Sephardic community in Sarajevo. As Sephardic Jews, they traced their family line back to those who were expelled
from the Iberian Peninsula by Spanish royal decree in 1492. Joseph and Lenka married in Sarajevo on January 29, 1928. The
following year, Al was born on May 21, 1929. His sister, Erna, was born on January 20, 1934. Descended from a long line of
Sephardic rabbis, Al's family was religiously observant.
The Fincis enjoyed life there until World War II. On April 6, 1941, the Nazis and their Italian allies simultaneously invaded
Yugoslavia. Within days, they had captured the country. The Germans occupied the northern end of Yugoslavia, and the Italians
occupied the Dalmatian coast and some inland areas. Sarajevo was incorporated into the "Independent State of Croatia," a Nazi
puppet state under the brutal leadership of the Ustaša. The Germans arrived in Sarajevo on April 15, 1941. They immediately
destroyed the Sephardic synagogue in Sarajevo, the largest in the Balkans, and soon began requisitions, expropriations, and
arrests. Many Jewish women, children, and elders were interned in military camps while the men were taken for forced labor.
One month after the siege of Sarajevo, the Finci family fled for the Italian-occupied territories. Italian officials often
evaded Nazi demands to hand over Jews, transporting them instead to internment camps on the Adriatic islands or to villages
in northern Italy, where they placed Al's family. In December 1941, twelve members of Al's extended family disembarked from
a coach in Gramignazzo di Sissa, an agricultural village with two hundred residents on the delta of the Taro River. Internment
in Gramignazzo meant a state of semi-surveillance with significant restrictions. They were unable to attend school or work,
use public transportation or leave the village, plant crops, listen to the radio or read foreign newspapers, or host unauthorized
persons. Despite this, they felt safe with the Italians and developed friendships with local townspeople. The children were
homeschooled with books provided by DELASEM, and Al's cousins taught him math, world history, and geography.
The Fincis were liberated in September 1943, when the Italians capitulated to the Allied forces. But their freedom was short-lived.
The allies won in southern Italy, but were unable to move up through Italy and its territories fast enough to prevent the
Germans from taking them from the north. The Fincis went into hiding, and with the help of a clerk in the regional registry
and the mayor of Sissa, the family obtained false identity papers to flee the region. In April 1944, the Fincis decided to
travel north, deeper into Nazi-occupied Italy and across the Alps to Switzerland. They went through Milan to Moltrasio on
the shore of Lake Como, and from there they set off in small groups to cross the Alps by foot in the middle of the night.
The Swiss issued the refugees documents, and placed them in schools, foster homes, and hotels empty from the war. Al left
his family to go to a Jesuit boarding school, Collegio Maschile Sant'anna, the first time in years that he formally attended
school, but was expelled after representing the Jewish students to the principal and objecting to their attending mass. At
his second boarding school, he spent his days digging potatoes. Al remained there until the end of the war.
On May 8, 1945, Nazi Germany officially surrendered to the Allies and the Soviet Union, and World War II came to an end in
Europe. Al reunited with his parents and sister in Switzerland, and together the Finci family returned to Italy. There they
went to Santa Maria di Bagni, the largest displaced persons (DP) camp in southern Italy, housing 2,300 Jews in requisitioned
local villas. Two years after the war, the DP camp closed in 1947. Al's family departed for Rome, where they waited for visas
to the United States, hoping to join Al's uncle, the only other surviving sibling of his father's 15 brothers and sisters.
In April 1950, the Fincis sailed to New York City with Red Cross passports on the MV Italia, a commercial liner. Once they
arrived, the American Joint Distribution Committee provided Al and his family with airplane tickets to Los Angeles to join
his uncle. Jewish Family Services helped the Fincis find jobs. His mother did clerical work for the Encyclopedia Americana.
His father set up his own export business, sending foodstuffs and other items to Yugoslavia. Al worked odd jobs while at night,
he took English classes and exams to earn credits towards a high school diploma.
Within the year, Al received a draft letter from the U.S. army to fight in the Korean War. Al enlisted in March 1951. Once
discharged from the army in 1953 with the end of the Korean War, Al enrolled at UCLA with the support of the GI Bill, where
he studied accounting. In April 1955, he married Rose Stock, also an émigré from Sarajevo, but from an Ashkenazi family. They
had initially met as children in his father's bookstore in Sarajevo, and then again as teenagers in the same Italian DP Camp.
When their paths crossed a third time in the United States, they decided to marry. Together they drove to Nevada, where they
could marry without the delays caused by the medical tests needed for a marriage license in most states.
In Los Angeles, Rose got a job operating a comptometer, while Al continued his education. Al completed his BA in three years,
graduating in 1956 with highest honors and Phi Beta Kappa. While Al continued on to earn his MBA, he and Rose had their first
two children, Joe in 1957 and Jeff in 1959. Helen was born three years later in 1962. After graduating, Al joined the accounting
firm Seidman & Seidman. He became a partner in 1964 and joined the board of directors in 1969. He retired as Vice Chairman
in 1992 from the same firm, later renamed BDO USA, LLP after 36 years of service.
For more information on Al and Rose, see the online exhibit
"From Sarajevo to City of Angels: The Remarkable Story of Al and Rose Finci"
This collection documents the experiences of the Finci family: Joseph Finci and Lenka Finci (neé Musafia) and their children,
Al Finci and Erna Viterbi (neé Finci). The Finci-Musafia families papers consist of materials relating to Al Finci's childhood
in prewar Sarajevo; his family's experience in Gramignazzo, Italy and in Switzerland during the war; their time in Rome after;
and Al's professional life in Los Angeles. It includes a number of official documents (passports, visas, naturalization certificates,
marriage certificates, death certificates, etc.); family photographs; and photocopies of texts about the war.
This collection has been arranged both geographically and chronologically.
Sephardic Temple Tifereth Israel Records (LSC.2340). Available at UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E. Young Research Library, UCLA.
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sephardim -- California -- Los Angeles
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Finci, Al
Finci, Rose
Finci family -- Archives
Musafia family -- Archives