For over a year, Villa Emma in Nonantola, Italy, provided shelter for 73 Jewish children who were fleeing from Nazi persecution five years prior. They came from Germany, Austria, Yugoslavia, and Poland and had escaped under unusual circumstances. They were cared for by the aid organization of Italian Jews, with local residents actively helping. When German troops invaded in the fall of 1943, the children quickly found hiding places in the local seminary, with nuns, and with local families until they could flee to Switzerland. Klaus Voigt has thoroughly researched this unprecedented aid operation.