Characters
ITALIAN JEWSRenzo Leoni, a.k.a. Ugo Messner, Stefano Savoca, Don Gino Righetti
Lidia Segre Leoni, his widowed mother; la nonna (the grandmother)
Tranquillo Loeb, her eldest daughter’s husband
Iacopo Soncini, chief rabbi of Sant’Andrea
Mirella Casutto Soncini, his wife
Angelo, their young son
Altira, their first daughter, deceased
Rosina, their second daughter
Giacomo Tura, elderly Hebrew scribe
JEWISH REFUGEESClaudette Blum, Belgian teenager;
Claudia Fiori, la vedova (the widow)
Albert Blum, her father
Duno Brössler, Austrian teenager, partisan
Herrmann and Frieda Brössler, his parents
Liesl and Steffi, his younger sisters
Rivka Ivanova Brössler, his paternal grandmother
Jakub Landau, organizer for the Italian CNL (Committee for National Liberation); il polacco (the Pole)
ITALIAN CATHOLICSSuora (Sister) Marta, middle-aged nun
Suora Corniglia, novice, later nun; Suora Fossette (Sister Dimples)
Massimo Malcovato, her father; il maggiore (the major)
Don (male honorific) Osvaldo Tomitz, priest, Sant’Andrea
Don Leto Girotti, priest, San Mauro; il prete rosso (the red priest)
Santino Cicala, infantryman, Calabrian draftee
Catarina Dolcino, the Leonis’ landlady; Rina
Serafino Brizzolari, municipal bureaucrat, Sant’Andrea
Antonia Usodimare, proprietress, Pensione Usodimare
Tercilla Lovera, contadina (peasant woman), Santa Chiara
Pierino, Tercilla’s son; il postino (the postman)
Bettina, his sister
Battista Goletta, Fascist farmer, Valdottavo
Attilio Goletta, his cousin, Communist sharecropper
Tullio Goletta, Attilio’s son, partisan
Adele Toselli, elderly housekeeper, San Mauro rectory
Nello Toselli, her nephew, partisan
Maria Avoni, partisan; la puttana tedesca (the German whore)
Otello Rollero, partisan, interpreter for Simon Henley
BRITISHSimon Henley, signalman, Special Operations executive
GERMANSWerner Schramm, deserter, Oberstabsarzt (medical officer) Waffen-SS
Irmgard, his sister, deceased
Erhardt von Thadden, Gruppenführer (division commander) Waffen-SS; the Schoolmaster
Martina, his wife
Helmut Reinecke, his adjutant, Hauptsturmführer (captain), later Standartenführer (colonel, regimental commander)
Ernst Kunkel, Oberscharführer (staff sergeant), aide to von Thadden
Artur Huppenkothen, Oberstpolizei (police colonel), Gestapo
Erna, his sister