Finding Aid for the Finci and Musafia Families Papers LSC.2431
Finding aid prepared by Rachel Smith, 2023.
UCLA Library Special Collections
Online finding aid last updated 2023 June 6.
Room A1713, Charles E. Young Research Library
Box 951575
Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575
Business Number: 310-825-4988
Fax Number: 310-206-1864
AskLSC@library.ucla.edu
This record is made available under an Universal 1.0 Public Domain Dedication Creative Commons license.
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.
Conditions Governing Access
Open for research. All requests to access special collections materials must be made in advance using the request button located
on this page.
Conditions Governing Use
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
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item], Finci and Musafia families papers (Collection 2431). UCLA Library Special Collections, Charles E.
Young Research Library. University of California, Los Angeles.
Processing Information
Processed by Rachel Smith in 2023 under the supervision of Courtney Dean in the Center for Primary Research and Training (CFPRT).
Collections are processed to a variety of levels depending on the work necessary to make them usable, their perceived user
interest and research value, availability of staff and resources, and competing priorities. Library Special Collections provides
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Biographical History
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.
Scope and Contents
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.
Arrangement
This collection has been arranged both geographically and chronologically.
Related Materials
Subjects and Indexing Terms
Sephardim -- California -- Los Angeles
Holocaust, Jewish (1939-1945)
Finci, Al
Finci, Rose
Finci family -- Archives
Musafia family -- Archives
box 1, folder 1
Death Announcements for relatives of Al Finci printed in Sarajevo
1926 January 1-1999 December 31
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
Scope and Contents
Includes announcements for Yosef Finzi (1919), Ašer Leon Finci (d. 1926), Erna Kabiljo (d. 1994), Regina Finci (d. 1974),
Ašer Kabiljo (d. 1994), Rahela (Shelly) Kabiljo (d. 1984), and Kalmi Finci (d. 1997).
box 1, folder 1
Student booklet for Al Finci
1940-1941
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
Scope and Contents
Includes a photograph on the back page.
box 1, folder 1
School photograph of Al in Sarajevo
Undated
Scope and Contents
Al is seated in the second row directly in the middle, wearing all white.
box 1, folder 1
Marriage registration of Al's parents, Jozef Finci and Lenka Musafia in Serbo-Croatian (1965) with an English translation
(1966)
1965-1966
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian, English
box 1, folder 1
Certificate commemorating Al's first year of school in the Independent State of Croatia
1941
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 1
Reprint of Aser Finci birth certificate
1939 June 2
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 1
Reprint of Lenka Musafia's birth registration
1963
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 1
Reprint of Jozef Finci and Lea-Lenka Musafia's marriage certificate with English translation
1965 November 6
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian, English
box 1, folder 1
Reprint of Lea Musafia 1903 birth certificate with English translation
1962
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian, English
box 1, folder 1
Poem about Sarajevo by Isak Papo, "Sarajevo mi sevdad de oro" (Sarajevo, my city of gold)
1993
Language of Material: Materials are in Ladino
box 1, folder 1
Photocopy of advertisement for Leon Finci's business in Sarajevo
undated
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 1
Birth Certificate for Josef Finci (b. 12/9/1895) from the Sephardic community of Sarajevo
1919 April 6
Language of Material: Materials are in Ladino
box 1, folder 1
Reprint of Erna Finci's birth certificate
1940 4 June
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 1
Leatherbound wallet with paper bills
undated
Language of Material: Materials are in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 2
Erna Finci certificate of Internment
1944
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Minutes of the Municipal Council Meeting conferment of honorary citizenship for Erna and Andrew Viterbi, Rose and Al Finzi,
Elaine and Roberto Naiman
2005
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Lenka Finci expresses gratitude to the Italian population
1983
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Al and Josef Finci's bus and tram passes from Rome
1945
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Josef (Giuseppe) Finci (Finzi) business cards from Rome
undated
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Red Cross Passports issued by the delegation in Rome to Josef (1948, 1950), Lenka (1948, 1949), Al (1948, under the name Alexander
Finkovic; 1950)
1948 January 1-1950 December 31
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Town of Sissa Identity Card for Josef (Giuseppe) Finzi
1945
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Yugoslav Welfare Society in Rome Identity Card for Lenka and Josif (Josef) Finci (Fincovic)
1948
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Finci family lassiapassare
1941
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
International Refugee Organization ID and Travel Authorization for Refugees from Rome to Naples to Detroit for Josef and Lenka
Finci and children Al (Aser) and Erna
1950
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Displaced Person Card for Josef, Lenka, and Al (Aser) Finci issued in Como
1945
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
HIAS Identity Card for Al (Aser) Finci issued in Rome
1948
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Italian postal identification card for Josef Finci
1951
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Certificate from Roman Economic bureau for Josef (Giuseppe) Finci (Finzi) and Max Najman
1947
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 1, folder 2
Letter inviting Josef Finci and family to the American Consulate to apply for immigration visas
1949
box 1, folder 2
Book on the Holocaust in Sissa with a photo of the Finci family on the cover
undated
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
Scope and Contents
Al is pictured on the far right.
box 1, folder 3
Finci family passport issued by the Royal Legation of Yugoslavia in Switzerland
1944 May 8
Language of Material: Materials in Serbo-Croatian and French
box 1, folder 3
Two maps with key locations circled, one with arrows showing the family's travel route from Como to Moltrasio, Bruzella, Balerna,
and Menorisio
box 1, folder 3
Refugee Cards for Josef Finci (1944-1946) and Lenka Finci (1944-1946)
1944-1946
Language of Material: Materials in German
box 1, folder 3
Al's report card from Collegio Maschile Sant'anna, Switzerland
1944-1945
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
Scope and Contents
Includes images of the school.
box 1, folder 3
Photocopies of entry reports from Josef, Lenka, and Erna Finci into made by the Police in Bellinzona, Switzerland
2006 reproduction of 1944 report
Language of Material: Materials in German, Italian
box 1, folder 4
US passport for Lenka Finci
1962 March 23
box 1, folder 4
US passport for Lenka Finci
1978 August 3
box 1, folder 4
US passport for Joseph Finci
1962 March 23
box 1, folder 4
Airline tickets to US from American Airlines in envelope and postcard of an airplane
1950 April 14
box 1, folder 4
Receipt from Gateway Motel in Las Vegas from when Al and Rose got married there
1955 April 21
box 1, folder 4
Printouts from Museum of the Jewish Diaspora in Tel Aviv about Drohobych, where Rose Finci (Al's wife) was born, Sarajevo,
and the name Finci
1992 November 3
box 1, folder 4
Program for the dedication of the Joseph and Lenka Finci United Jewish Federation Building in San Diego, funded by Erna Viterbi
(Al's sister) and her husband Andrew Viterbi
2001 October 30
box 1, folder 4
Lenka Finci Certificate of Naturalization
1955 June 24
box 1, folder 4
Joseph Finci Certificate of Naturalization
1955 June 24
box 1, folder 4
Joseph Finci Death Certificate
1967 May 3
box 1, folder 4
Lenka Finci Death Certificate
1994 November 21
box 1, folder 4
Yahrzeit booklet and cemetery information (map, burial location, receipt) for Lenka Finci
1994 November 22
box 1, folder 4
Letter from Lenka Finci to the US dept of Justice Immigration and Naturalization Service requesting the Department change
her records to indicate her correct birth date of 1903 rather than 1904
1965 November 23
box 1, folder 4
Telegram alerting Josef Finci of the death of Mark Finci
1955 August 5
box 1, folder 4
Letter to Al and Rose from a friend who went to Sarajevo and took a picture at a museum of Rabbi Leon Josef Finci
1990 August 14
box 1, folder 4
Declarations of Intention for Lenka Finci
1951 January 12
box 1, folder 4
Declarations of Intention for Joseph Finci
1951 June 5
box 1, folder 4
Letter from the Shoah Foundation thanking them for their testimony
undated
box 1, folder 5
Letter from UCLA to Al thanking him for his pledge to help pay for the Memorial Activities Center at UCLA
1964 January 17
box 1, folder 5
Letter from California Governor, Edmund G. Brown Jr., thanking Al for a meeting at the CA Executive Partners' Workshop
1981 February 9
box 1, folder 5
Profile of Al as a partner at Seidman and Seidman
undated
box 1, folder 5
Certificate of highest honors in accounting for Al at graduation from UCLA School of Business Administration
1956 June 6
box 1, folder 5
Al's Los Angeles high school diploma
1951 June 15
box 1, folder 5
Al's high school transcript from California State Department of Education
1951 February 1
box 1, folder 5
Business newsletter from Seidman & Seidman featuring Al
1970 December
box 1, folder 5
California Society for CPAs newsletters with articles: "Al Finci Chosen as Distinguished Service Award Winner", "Meet your
1978-1979 Committee Chairmen," "Al Finci Named Distinguished Chapter Member"
1978-1991 May
box 1, folder 5
Program from Al's initiation into Phi Beta Kappa at UCLA
1956 May 18
box 1, folder 5
Announcement of Al's admission to partnership at Seidman & Seidman
undated
box 1, folder 5
Letter from the Chief Rabbinate Jewish Sephardic Community Sarajevo attesting to the birth of Aser Finci for school registration
and showing he knows Serbo-Croatian notarized
1970
Language of Material: Materials in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 5
Business advertisements for Kalmus Company printed in California and two of his business cards
1957
box 1, folder 6
Booklet with the story of "The Family Finzi-Musafia to Gramignazzo of Sissa (Parma)"
undated
box 1, folder 6
List of the interned people in the Commune of Sissa
undated
box 1, folder 6
Photocopy from unnamed book with mention of Rabbi Juda Josef Finci about the Sarajevo Jewish community
undated
Language of Material: Materials in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 6
Booklet "Saved from Oblivion: Oral Heritage of Sephardic Sarajevo"
2000
Language of Material: Materials in Serbo-Croatian
box 1, folder 6
Proverbs and Sayings of the Sephardic Jews of Bosnia and Herzogovina
1976
Language of Material: Materials in Serbo-Croatian, English.
box 1, folder 6
Program for "Jewish Sarajevo" at UCLA
2000 March 12
box 1, folder 6
Photocopy of text "Jews in the Yugoslav Resistance Movement from 1941-1945"
undated
box 1, folder 6
Photocopy of letter Al wrote in the LA times "Jewish Refugees in Switzerland"
undated
box 1, folder 6
Copy of LA Times article "There was nothing Sinister in Swiss Refugee Camps" by Thomas G. Borer"
undated
box 1, folder 7
Miscellaneous photos with captions: Italy, Erna's wedding, Los Angeles
1944-1964
Language of Material: Materials in English, Italian
box 2
Plaque commemorating honorary citizenship to Al and Rose Finci
2005 November 6
Language of Material: Materials in Italian
box 3
Finci family photo album
1950s-1990s
