Ronie Pollacco - Sept. 2014
By Chris Biancaniello
Ronie Pollacco speaks four languages (English, Italian, French, Spanish), he’s lived in Italy, New York City, Ibiza, Bali, Milan, and France. Ronie Pollacco is by every definition a citizen of the world. Even at the age of eighty and battling Parkinson’s Disease, he is still lively as ever. I was granted the privilege to sit down and talk with him about how his life had taken shape. He showed me photographs of his travels, kids, past loves, and family members. Despite all of the things Ronie is today, and all of his travels, one of the most interesting things about Mr. Pollacco is the story of his childhood.
If you’ve done the math you’ve realized that Ronie was born in 1934. What’s more, Ronie was born in Italy to a Jewish family in 1934. Though Italy is rarely the focus of our World War II history lessons, Italians faced the same horrors as the rest of Europe: fascism, war, and not the least of which, anti-Semitism. In fact, an estimated 7,500 Italian Jews were killed during the holocaust and that is out of a pre-war population of just 44,000.
1936 Fiat Topolino (google)Each time Mussolini would make a speech his family (along with many other families) would drive in their Topolino, from their home in Milan, to the border of Switzerland listening to Mussolini’s speech on the radio and wondering if they would ever see home again. “If the speech was horrendous we would consider not going back, if the speech was not so bad we returned.” He can vividly remember packing his families luggage on top of the notoriously small Topolino and making the trips, until one day they could not go back.
In the 1940’s war obviously wasn’t reported the way it is today. Newscasts were made over the radio and were often inaccurate. Rumors ran rampant across Europe about what was safe and what wasn’t, and Ronie’s family experienced their fair share of what some call the fog of war. “You didn’t know what was true and what was not, people ran around like chickens with their heads cut off.”
The family left everything behind including their home, their friends, and even some family, and headed for Nice, France, which unbeknownst to them was soon to face its own set of World War II horrors. His family lived in France for about three years and during this time his sister Gabriella was born. Their time in France was tumultuous at best, “the French were not very helpful towards Jews,” he says. He doesn’t look back on this time all too fondly. In fact he seems almost proud to have forgotten some of the language.
Ronnie Pollacco As the conflict grew around Europe, his family felt the effects. He can recall awaking at 1am every morning to go down to the cellar and play cards with his family while bombs were being dropped around them. Then the family would go back upstairs, but upon his mother hearing a rumor that someone had thrown a hand grenade in Paris, the family decided to leave France for Spain. Spain of course was also dealing with its share of World War II turmoil, though their official stance was neutral, they supported the Axis powers materially. They were recovering from a brutal Civil War which proved to be incredibly costly. At the age of just six, Ronie, and his family were turned away.
In their hour of need they decided to head for America. They boarded a Polish ship from France bound for New York. When they finally arrived they, “weren’t even sure we could get off the boat,” says Ronie who was just six-years-old at the time. It was November of 1940 and America was on the brink of entering the fray in Europe. Fortunately for Ronie and his family, this meant there was work to be had (he speaks glowingly of F.D.R.). His father would eventually own his own store on Fifth Avenue called Ivel’s, which would eventually become the first store to offer fashion shows with African American models wearing wedding gowns and dresses.
reissued in 2002Once the war had finally ended and the family had established a permanent home in New York, they decided to return to Italy in search of his grandmother on his father’s side. They requested help from the U.S. government (the Pollacco’s wrote to President Eisenhower) they found their answer in an Italian book “IL Libro Della Memoria” his family members were listed in the long list of those killed in Auschwitz. The Pollacco family deeply saddened returned to Italy. They erected a monument in Florence; a simple marble pole, broken at the top to commemorate the loss of a grandmother who died too soon.
Ronie would grow-up to travel the world, stopping from place to place to live in some of the most beautiful locations on Earth. He married and had three children. One of his children is deceased the remaing two children live in NY. He fondly flips through photographs of himself on his motorcycle, of family members, some of whom have passed. Each one bringing a new memory, a new story to tell. His experiences as a child, despite horrifying to those of us who have spent most of our lives living comfortably in the U.S., shaped the man he would grow to be. A world traveler. A motorcycle enthusiast. A father. A survivor.
Ronie Pollacco currently lives in Kings Park. He celebrated his 80th birthday on September 4, 2014.
Editor’s note - Putting memories in their proper sequence is often difficult for the person reliving memories that are decades in the past. While Mr. Pollacco had some difficulties, Smithtown Matters believes this article fairly represents the events that Mr. Pollacco experienced. We wish Mr. Pollacco a very happy birthday with many more to follow.