Other Parts of the World

Other Parts of the World – 20th Century to Present

Canada

David Varsano died on January 23, 1968 in Toronto, Canada.

Sarina Varsano died in Toronto on February 2, 1969. Dawes Road Cemetery, Toronto.

Alfons Varsano immigrated to Canada from Romania in 1978. Alfons describes his new life in North America, “In 1977 I applied again to live the country (I could not stand the communism) this time for Canada, I arrived in Canada, with my wife, in 1978. I worked for 20 years as a senior computer analyst and designer for a major retail company. My wife is engineer and worked for a few years for Coca Cola.”

Other Canadian Varsanos, as of 2024 are

Ronen Varsano owns a house in Thornhill, Ontario and works in IT.

Idan Varsano is Software Engineer in Toranto.

Adi Varsano is a broadcaster and founder of The Environmentalist podcast in Vaughan, Ontario, Canada

South America

Joaquim Jacques Varsano was born on October 24, 1905 in Salonica, Turkey. His father was Elias Varsano. In 1950, he was listed as a single man of Portuguese nationality that immigrated to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Alberto Gattegno y Varsano was born on March 11, 1922 in Salonica, Greece. His father was Sam Gattegno and his mother was Sonna Varsano. On October 3, 1952, he arrived at Santos Brazil and resided at Rua Vitorino Camilo No 484. Alberto (or Albert) Gattegno y Varsano were also listed as being in the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration – North African Refugee Center in 1944. It is unknown where they spent the 8 years in between or how they arrived in South America.

David Beraha Varsano was born on August 10, 1926 in Venezuela. His parents were Zak Beraha and Ester Varsano. In 1954, he was listed as a married man with Venezuelan nationality that immigrated to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil.

Susana Mandel De Beraha Varsano was born on July 17, 1932 in Montevideo, Uruguay. On October 26, 1954, she immigrated to Rio De Janeiro, Brazil and lived at Rua Amaral Gurgel, No 158-Apto 72) R.E. 568.193 Exp.21.7.60. She was likely was married to David Beraha Varsano.

England

Jean Isaac Varsano is listed in a death registry in England. Jean Isaac of 12 Minford-gardens Sheperds Bush Middlesex died May 8, 1926. Manchester March 30 to Moise Isaac Florentin shipping agent the attorney of David Isaac Varsano. On July 8, 1908, the Journal de Salonique, a French publication in Salonica, Turkey, printed a article stating “Our fellow citizen, Mr. Jean Varsano, who studied law in Paris and London has just returned to Salonika with all his diplomas. IVI C Jean Varsano intends to practice in Salonika. We wish him much success.” On July 22 1907, the Journal de Salonique published a blurb about congratulating Jean Varsano on being licensed by the Faculty of Law of Paris. On the advice of several university figures, the young lawyer proposes pursuing a doctorate in law. On May 18, 1899, the Journal de Salonique in an article states “An Israelite commerical school has just been founded where it teaches in Turkish, German, Spanish, and Latin, the principles of accounting and business knowledge.” Three administrators were named, one of them was “Jean Varsano, a graduate of the imperial Ottoman high school…”

New York-born CEO Steve Varsano established The Jet Business in 1979. In 2011 Mr. Varsano open a private aircraft showroom in London’s Knightsbridge district. Read more about Steve Varsano.

Netherlands

A collection of books from the 18th Century for sale in a Jerusalem auction that were printed in Livorno and Amsterdam with handwritten signatures and ownership inscriptions lists a Chiddushei HaRitva from Amsterdam in 1729. Handwritten signatures and ownership inscriptions with Sephardic script from various writers, the first of which is Ovadia Varsano. There appears to be a connection between Italian and Dutch Jews during the 18th Century, so it’s possible that Ovadia Varsano and other Varsano family members stayed, and possibly studied Torah in the Netherlands.

Yaron Varsano was born in June 28, 1975 in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. His parents are Daniel “Danny” Varsano and Irit (Landman) Varsano. His father was born in Izmir, Turkey and his mother Irit Landman has Dutch heritage. According to Ancestry.com, Dutch: variant of Landsman from landman ‘(fellow) countryman’. Americanized form of German Landmann ‘(fellow) countryman’ and a variant of the same Jewish (Ashkenazic) surname. Yaron also has a brother named Guy Varsano. Yaron was educated at the Amsterdam International School. Yaron was brought up in Amsterdam until the 1990s when he moved to New York.

Romania

Leon Varsano was born around 1870 in Silistra, Bulgaria. Silistra was the home of Eliezer Papo who was a well-regarded rabbi and Jewish scholar, which attracted many observant Jews. Leon hardly spoke Romanian, but he did speak Ladino. Silistra, however, was claimed by both Romania and Bulgaria. Leon Varsano was married to Mazal (Ventura) Varsano in the 1890s and they had two sons and two daughters. Mazal’s family may have lived Varna, Bulgaria.

After the Second Balkan War, the 1913 Treaty of Bucharest ceded Silistra and the whole of Southern Dobruja to Romania. Bulgaria regained the town from 1916 during World War I. This became finalized with the Treaty of Bucharest in 1918 after Romania surrendered to the Central Powers (of which Bulgaria was a part). The Treaty of Neuilly (1919) following World War I returned it to Romania. Silistra remained a part of Romania until the Axis-sponsored Treaty of Craiova in 1940, when the town once again became part of Bulgaria, a transfer confirmed by the Paris Peace Treaties in 1947. In 1940, Leon Varsano died in Constanța, Romania and was spared most of the horrors of WWII.

Mazal (Ventura) Varsano was also born in Silistra in the 1870s and died in Constanta around 1950. Leon and Mazal had four children: Buco Varsano, David Varsano, Sophie (Varsano) Veisy, and Elise Varsano.

Buco (Bechor) Varsano was born February 2, 1894 in Silistra. His parents were Leon Varsano and Mazal Ventura Varsano. Buco was military officer during WWI in 1918. Read more about Buco Varsano.

David Varsano was born in Silistra on December 25, 1895. He married Sarina (Adler) Varsano, who was born on March 13, 1899, in the 1920s and they had two children: Lydia (Varsano) Hornstein and Alfons Varsano. According to his son Alfons, David’s entire family decided to move to Constanta, Romania to stay out of trouble. David Varsano’s family left Constanta on the last train soon out, soon after WWII started in 1941 following heavy Russian bombardments. The family moved west to Romanian capital of Bucharest. Alfons says “We were lucky, we escaped deportation. My father was never arrested but he was forced to work to remove cadavers after bombardments. Most Jews survived the war in Romania (the government was receiving money to keep us alive).”

Sophie (Varsano) Veisy was born around 1899 in Constanta, Romania on the Black Sea. Constanta also changed hands from Romania to Bulgaria over the years, but remains Romanian since 1918. Also in 1918, Sophie Varsano married Leon Veissy in Constanta and they had son. Sophie died in 1962 in Haifa, Israel.

Elise Varsano was born around 1901 in Constanta, Romania and died on December 1, 1961 in Haifa, Israel.

Alfons Varsano was born in Constanta, Romania in 1929. In 1941, his family moved to Bucharest. During WWII, the Romanian Jews of Bucharest were not forced to wear yellow Jewish stars. Alfons describes his wartime life about surviving with limited means, “I was collecting all sorts of goods who were going to the officials in Bucharest. I was collecting goods from Jews. There were streets with only Jewish families. My father received a plot were he had to grow vegetables who were taken by the government. Me and my sister learned in Jewish schools not recognized by the government. Over all we could not complain, we were far better than other…I am referring to Transylvania were the Hungarians were not so nice to the Jews….More of the Romanian Jews were deported from Transylvania. There were attacks by the Iron Guard who killed many Jews In Bucharest. “

The Iron Guard was a Romanian militant revolutionary fascist movement and political party founded in 1927. It was strongly anti-democratic, anti-capitalist, anti-communist, and antisemitic. It differed from other European far-right movements of the period due to its spiritual basis, as the Iron Guard was closely associated with Romanian Orthodox Christian mysticism. Jews and Romanians that were not fascist were killed in the slaughterhouse and hanged by their legs. The Iron Guard was active between 1927– 1940.

Alfons Varsano and his immediate family survived the war, but then had to suffer under Romanian communism. However, the communist government did allow Jews to attend universities and to work decent jobs. Alfons spent 10 years as a reporter for The “Romanian Radio Bucuresti,” managed by communists party. Unfortunately, the somewhat “good life” ended in 1961 when most of the Jews started to request permission to emigrate to Israel. Lydia Varsano, Alfons’ sister applied in 1961 to make aliyah. Alfons describes how the “Romanian Communist Party received $10,000 from his brother who defected to US. I also applied to emigrate to Israel. I was fired, labeled enemy of the people. I work as a blue collar doing very hard work in mechanical. After few years exhausted and not too much hope in the horizon I declared that I renounced to my emigration application. Fact is that working for same factory I was asked if I want to be the head of the computer department. I accepted and shortly I created programs (first in the country) who changed the way the production was organized. My computer department was rated as the first in the country, and a model in the computer industry in Romania.”

More than a decade later, Alfons now married, was able to immigrate to Canada. “It took me 17 years to finally leave the communism behind. We lost the houses we owned, we lost everything and we left for Canada. Life in communism was full of corruption, lies, and lies. Poverty and poverty. Line-ups and line-ups to buy food if anything was left when you arrived at the door. There was also a lot of antisemitism…but hidden.”Read more about his Varsano family in Canada.

Morocco

In the 14th and 15th Centuries, the Varsano families living in Spain may have gone back and forth into North Africa across the straight of Gibraltar. As the persecutions of Jews in Spain began to increase, many Jewish families started doing business and even relocated to parts of North Africa, mostly in Morocco. Jonathan Varsano’s DNA results from Ancestry.com from 2022, show that he is 1% North African with an ethnicity range from 0—5%. While there is not a strong connection to Morocco from this time period, there is at least some suggestion of a Varsano family presence on the African continent.

During the late 19th Century and the early part of the 20th, there is more substantial evidence of an important Varsano in Casablanca, Morocco. Maurice Varsano was born in Morocco and after WWII moved to Paris, France. Maurice would go on to found Sucres et Denrées (Sucden) which was listed as the 8th largest family-run business in France in 2023. Maurice Varsano had much success in business and acquired a great deal of wealth, but continued to have connections to his Moroccan birthplace. In the 1950s, he commissioned a noted architect to build him a modern villa in Casablanca.

Wolfgang Ewerth, Varsano villa, Sidi Maârouf, 1954, Marc Lacroix. In Cohen and Eleb, Casablanca.

According to Jean-Louis Cohen in Casablanca la juive: Public and Private Architecture 1912-1960, “Between 1945 and the end of the Protectorate in 1956, Casablanca went through a new golden age, since it had suffered no destruction during the war. Capitals which had left France during and after the war fueled a renewed public and private building activity, in which Jews were heavily engaged, in particular in areas where villas were dominant… Close friends, both Zevaco and Azagury were trained at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, since there was no school of architecture in Casablanca, which was then considered a city of business, sports and leisure, but not an intellectual capital like Algiers, where architecture was taught at the École des Beaux-Arts…After working in Sweden and traveling to California, he brought back to Casablanca the architectural language Richard Neutra had explored in Los Angeles. The cantilevered sun-breakers of the Schulmann villa allude to the contemporary houses of Los Angeles, which found their best interpretation in the sumptuous villa built by Wolfgang Ewerth for the prominent Jewish cereal trader Maurice Varsano (1954).”

In addition to grandeur of the Moroccan Sugar King, there were more common Varsanos that went through North Africa during the 20th Century. On a United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration – North African Refugee Center from November 24, 1944, Donna Gattegno de Varsano and Albert Gattegno y Varsano along with Samuel Gattegno y Bensussan and several other members of the Gattegno family. It shows that they arrived on June 22, 1944 and departed on October 13, 1944. On the same list was Benveniste Rachel , Eliezer, and Sarina Saporta Varsano with the same arrival and departure dates. The entire list shows Sephardic Jewish names and they probably originated from Italy and/or Greece, but it is also possible that they were in France or Morocco prior.

According to The Wiener Holocaust Library, “The North African Refugee Centre was a displaced persons’ camp established by the British and American governments in mid-1944 as a result of the Bermuda Conference. The centre was founded in the former American military barracks at Camp Maréchal Lyautey, just outside of Casablanca in Morocco. Although initially administered by the American Office for Foreign Relief and Rehabilitation Operations (OFFRO) and the Federal Economic Administration (FEA) the NARC was later taken over by the newly established United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Despite being able to hold up to two thousand refugees from Nazism, during its existence the camp housed just 634, all of whom had previously sought shelter in Spain. Following the liberation of France and just a few months of operating, the camp closed on 15 November 1944.”