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Washington DC, September 2020
Ugo Carusi: “Laborer For Humanity”
FACES IN HISTORY
Italian American lawyer served four U.S. Presidents and eight Attorneys General in 40-year career
by Elizabeth DiGregorio “When I saw [what] those Italian families in Vermont could do in a single generation, I was convinced that America is the place for men with the will to work hard.” Ugo Carusi interview, the Washington Post, August 5, 1948.
the National University Law School, now George Washington University Law School, graduating in 1931 as class valedictorian. He came to D.C. expecting to stay for four years but remained for nearly 40 years serving four U.S. Presidents
“The name of Ugo Carusi with its foreign ring belongs to a very American gentleman who is executive assistant to the Attorney General…. He is a short, hazel-eyed, reticent man, who smiles easily from a sense of friendliness, but wishes it clearly understood that he is not the headwaters of the department but merely the channel to the Attorney General.” Delia Pynchon, the Washington Star, June, 1937. But, Ugo Carusi did leave his mark in Washington, D.C., post-World War II Europe, and on the countless generations whose families were part of the post-war wave of 400,000 Displaced Persons and other refugees who eventually became American citizens. Ugo Carusi was born in Carrara, Italy on March 17, 1902 to Italian born and naturalized American citizens, Eugenio and Eva Bertoli Carusi. The family lived in Barre, Vermont. Eugenio, an accomplished marble stone carver and business man, died when Carusi was 13. As the senior male in a family of six, Carusi went to work as a newsboy for three years until he became ill during the influenza epidemic of 1918. Working hard and excelling at school, he secured a job with the Vermont Attorney General’s office while still in high school. In 1925, he moved to Washington, D.C., taking a federal job as confidential secretary and assistant to fellow Vermonter and U.S. Attorney General, John Garibaldi Sargent. While working he also attended GINO MARINUCCI, C.P.A., P.C. CERTIFIED PUBLIC ACCOUNTANTS “SINCE 1975 YOUR SMALL BUSINESS SPECIALIST” ACCOUNTING ● TAX PLANNING TAX PREPARATION ● SOFTWARE SUPPORT COMPLETE PAYROLL SERVICE (301) 942-2266
How to Treat a Displaced Person
Above, Ugo Carusi. Right, Carusi greets a displaced Armenian family after WWII. and eight U.S. Attorneys General. From 1942 to 1944, as World War II raged across Europe, Carusi, executive assistant to Attorney General Francis Biddle was the voice of the Administration on regular Friday, short-wave broadcasts. Carusi presented the American viewpoint and encouraged partisan activities. His messages proved to be among the most influential sent by home-front Italian Americans to Italy. In his book, The Humble and the Heroic, Salvatore J. LaGumina affirms Carusi's influence, quoting columnist Drew Pearson, “One Italian army colonel now a prisoner of war in a camp near St. Louis, has revealed that he surrendered, with his entire force, as a direct result of Carusi’s radio appeal to the Italians in Tunisia to lay down their arms to the Allies. “Not a shot was fired,” the colonel reported…Another Italian officer in the same camp revealed that he had been learning English by translating Carusi’s shortwave broadcast scripts.” In 1945, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt appointed Carusi as U.S.
Carusi was once asked how to treat Displaced Persons (DPs). In his reply, Carusi described them as strong willed, hard-working people looking for a better life; regular people who needed help to integrate into American society. He urged people to look in the mirror to see what DPSs looked like, the only difference, he said, would be “your luck and theirs.”
(“Everybody’s Etiquette,” This Week Magazine, 1949. Vermont Historical Society)
Commissioner of Immigration and Naturalization. In 1948, President Harry S. Truman shifted him to the State Department, naming him Chairman of the Displaced Persons Commission and tasking him with resettling 400,000 Displaced Persons to the U.S. Carusi not only provided leadership but also took a personal interest in the resettlement projects. The President also tapped him to administer the War Brides Act that brought 75,000 World War II brides to the U.S. In 1948, Truman signed The Displaced Persons Act, despite its imperfections: it appropriated a fraction of the funds needed to fund the initial quota of 205,000 Displaced Persons, set up strict entry requirements, negatively impacted Jewish refugees who had survived the Holocaust and excluded many displaced persons of the Catholic faith. Truman sparred with Congress for
two years demanding full funding and fixes to the Act. Arguing the Administration’s position before Congress was Ugo Carusi. Despite some congressional opposition, the Senate passed the Amendments in 1950, clearing the way for the fully funded entry of 400,000 persons and the removal of the restrictive language against Displaced Persons. Carusi was the “go-to” person for refugee relief issues. In the early 1950’s he served as President Truman’s U.S. Representative to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. In 1956 President Eisenhower appointed him to the Committee for Hungarian Refugee Relief. And, in 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson tapped him to help assess the refugee issues in Vietnam. In 1958, Carusi joined the staff of Vermont Senator George D. Aiken, serving until 1963 when he officially retired for the “third and last time.” Carusi’s fascinating life is not limited to his notable professional accomplishments. He was a student of music, familiar with the works of all Italian composers, and he used his tenor voice to sing operas in Italian. He had a good sense of humor and was a great mimic, especially of Mussolini. He was described as a “ teetotaler, doesn’t smoke, and has never been heard to utter a swear word.” He loved golf, baseball and bowling, and was active in many civic groups and Italian heritage societies: Carusi was a founding member of the Lido Civic Club, serving as President in 1932 and 1942. Carusi married twice to women who also worked in the Justice Department in D.C. Edith Warner Carusi died in childbirth along with their day-old son in 1935. Eight years later, he married Anita Shaeffer Carusi. The childless couple made their home in D.C.’s Spring Valley neighborhood. Mrs. Carusi died in 1984. Carusi died at home in 1994, at age 92. He is buried at Rock Creek Cemetery in D.C.
