As told by Elizabeth Bettina in her 2009 book, "It Happened in Italy," the story of how her grandparents' small village of Campagna, Italy, helped save Jews during the Holocaust.
Eugene was born Jeno Schwartz in Munkacs, Czechoslovakia in 1928. He had a happy family life with 3 sisters and a brother. His mother came from an orthodox Jewish family but his father, who was a master tailor, did not. Religion played little part in Eugene's upbringing.