1900/A Poverty Stricken Italy/The Pope/Mussolini

In 1900 Italy, the country was divided into states, ravaged by war, coped with a greedy king and a Pope that tried desperately to control the population, therefore the politics. The southern regions of Italy were extremely poor, consisting of Scicilian states. The northern regions were not as desperate because of farming, but non-the-less, very poor.

Then, somewhere in 1918, Moussolini came into power. He was a facist, uneducated, and dealt harshly with those who opposed him, by killing, tortoring, killing their whole family, etc. His politcia were, I believe, called the Brown Hands. Later that century, 1938, a young german chancellor fashioned his regime after Mussolini's. His name was Adolf Hitler. He even fashioned his police after the Brown Hands. Absolute power, absolutely corrupt.

There was an exodus in Italy of over 12.5 million people. The most desireable destination was America. 7.5 million Italians transplanted themselves, went through Ellics Island, with family and jobs waiting for them. You had to have a place to live and a job to come to America. The other 5 million were spread over Canada and western Europe.

Given these grave conditions, in the early 1920's my mother and father's family fled from Italy, pretty sure it was after the 1st World War. There families knew each other in Italy and settled in Queens after they came here. An interesting story about my grandfather, mother's, father.
He had come the US before my grandmother, Isabella Rondonella DiMasi, set up an apartment while my grandmother traveled by herself with four small children. Well grandmother Isabella waited at Ellis Island for 10 days until grandfather came to get her. They almost sent her back with all the children. It seems my grandfather had a girlfriend, and took his sweet time until grandmother's brother found him and knocked the ever lovin' out of him and dragged him literally to Ellis Island. And that is how it started. My parents lives, intertwined all those years ago. More to come................