Sunday, February 16, 2025
Before Pina Frassineti Wax called Baldwin home, she was a young teenager growing up in Rome with her Italian-Jewish family. But when the dictator of Fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini, allied with Germany and Japan during World War II, her life — and the lives of her loved ones — changed forever.
During the Holocaust, Frassineti Wax, her mother, Bianca, and her brother, Sergio, went into hiding to escape Nazi persecution, posing as nuns in a Roman convent for two years. With the last name Frassineti, they were able to blend in.
Still able to recount the events of the Holocaust, Frassineti Wax, who celebrated her 100th birthday on Oct. 24, was honored at the Merrick Senior Center on Jan. 13.
“We have to remember,” Frassineti Wax said, as she addressed those in attendance. “First of all there were people — real people, that were taken.”
One of those taken captive was her grandfather, Octavio, an Italian rabbi who was abducted by the Germans one morning and never had the chance to share his story. He was arrested and sent to the Auschwitz concentration camp. Frassineti Wax’s father, Mario, spent the war in hiding, often sleeping in train cars to evade detection. Other relatives were killed at the Dachau concentration camp.
In Rome, after World War II, she married Mario Wax, an Italian serving in the U.S. Army. Eventually, Frassineti Wax came to America and settled in Baldwin, where she raised a family. The couple had three children together. They were married for 44 years when he died in the 1990s.
To commemorate her milestone 100th birthday, elected officials were present at the senior center to honor her ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Jan. 27. Guests included U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman, Town of Hempstead Supervisor Don Clavin and Councilwoman Laura Ryder.
Schumer presented the honoree with a U.S. Capitol flag, and read a proclamation announcing that she would receive similar recognition on the U.S. Senate floor.
Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish elected official who’s served as a minority and majority leader in the Senate, praised Frassineti Wax as a New York “hometown hero.”
“She has triumphed in the game of life like few others have,” Schumer said. “She has helped dedicate her life to loving, to learning, and to teaching others about the horrors of the Holocaust so that we never forget.”
The recognition came just days before a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas was reached on Jan. 15, following a war that began after the attacks in Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, according to mediators.
Clavin spoke to the Herald about the importance of Frassineti Wax’s story and how narratives like hers need to be shared in today’s world.
“We have somebody really special in the town,” he said, “a Holocaust survivor who had an amazing story, whose grandfather was taken away and never seen again. The fact that she was rescued by the nuns and able to tell that story and remind people of the atrocities that were the Holocaust.
“I think a lot of people have forgotten,” Clavin added, “or choose not to even want to consider. It’s important to recognize, remember and reflect on the Holocaust.”
