David Cassuto was born in Florence, Italy in 1937, to Hannah and Nathan. During the Second World War, his father served as a doctor and as chief rabbi of the Florence Jewish community. In 1943, as deportations of Italian Jewry to the extermination camps began, his family scattered in different hiding places. His father was an underground member, and helped rescue Jews until he was caught and arrested. In trying to release his father, his mother was also caught and imprisoned. The two were interrogated and then sent to Auschwitz. During this period, David and his siblings, under assumed identities, were hidden in various locations unaware of the fate of their parents. David, his brother and sister survived the war, and after the liberation of Italy, immigrated to pre-state Israel, where they were received in Jerusalem by their grandparents, Prof. Moshe Cassuto and his wife Simcha who raised them. David would go on to become an architect and a lecturer in architecture.
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