My name is Alberto Di Porto. My family originally came from Portugal, hence the name Di Porto, meaning “From Porto” in Italian. Porto is a city in Portugal. My ancestors fled Portugal during the Spanish Inquisition and eventually settled in Italy.
Fast forward to WW II. The Italian government, a Fascist regime led by Benito Mussolini at the time, was an ally of Adolf Hitler’s Germany. When news spread that the German Army was arriving in Italy to carry out the Final Solution, many Jews who were able to escape Rome sought refuge in the mountains.
My father, Marco Di Porto, took his family, including my mother Enrica, my sister Tina, my brother Settimio, and my maternal Grandmother, and fled to a town called San Demetrio ne’ Vestini in the Province of L’Aquila in the Abruzzo region.
Somehow, my family found refuge in a barn belonging to a local farmer. During this time, my mother was pregnant at a late stage with my twin brother Cesare and me. At night, my father would leave the barn and search for food to feed his family.
When it was time for my mother to give birth, she only had her mother assisting her in the delivery. My brother and I were born tiny; thank G-d my mother was able to breastfeed us. While I was big enough to survive, my brother Cesare was born so small that under normal circumstances, he would have been placed in an incubator, but of course, that was a luxury that was not available to them. Thanks to my grandmother’s ingenuity, they placed a blanket in a makeshift crib and placed bottles with warm water around him to function as a makeshift incubator.
So as not to attract suspicion from the local farmers, a month later, my father took me and my twin brother to a local church and had us baptized. To be completely convincing, he declared that our last name was DI PIETRO (like San Peter).
We were born on May 25, 1944, and a few months later, the war ended, and my family was able to return to our home in Rome. Upon our return, we had our Britot performed.
As an adult, I worked as a clothing merchant in Rome, Italy. I came to America in 1984 to be closer to my family that relocated here a few years prior.
My current hobbies are cooking Italian food and watching Italian movies.
Dr. Eggnatz was amazing; his office staff was very nice, from the first contact and throughout the treatment. Dr. Eggnatz did this from his heart to help a Holocaust survivor in need, and I appreciate it so much. He took care of a tooth that was bothering me for a long time, keeping me from eating. I am so much more comfortable now. I would never have been able to follow through with treatment if I didn’t have a kind dentist providing the work to me through the AO dental program.