Valentina Supino

Valentina Supino was born to an Italian Jewish family in Bologna. Her parents were Camilla Benaim, a painter, and Giulio Supino, who taught at the University of Bologna. Her grandmother was Elisa Rosselli. The family endured persecution under the so-called race laws in Fascist Italy and the German Occupation in World War II that began in September 1943. Their joint memoir recounts how Elisa Rosselli was smuggled into Switzerland, while Camilla and Valentina remained hidden in Florence, where Camilla participated in the Resistance. Valentina survived to become a noted psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Paris. Her joint memoir with her mother and grandmother was Trois générations de femmes dans la tourmente, published in 2019.