When Mario Capecchi received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine last year, the world was amazed by the story of his childhood years spent living as an orphan in Italy during World War II.
However, the accuracy of Capecchi’s story was questioned when The Associated Press published a story last October revealing that several of his recollections didn’t match records in Italy.
Capecchi, a professor of human genetics and biology at the U, apologized for his inaccurate memories during a lecture Wednesday.
“I want to begin with an apology,” he said. “The content of the autobiographical sketch were based on my uncle and mother.”
Capecchi said he remembers his mother, Lucy Ramberg, being a member of a poetry group, called the Bohemians, that fought against fascism.
“German officers came to the chalet where we were living and arrested her,” he said.
Edward Ramberg, Capecchi’s uncle, tried to track Lucy down during World War II. Ramberg thought she was located in the Dachau concentration camp, but was never sure. The AP conducted research in 2007 and found that, according to historical records, Lucy Ramberg had never been in Dachau. The AP also questioned whether Capecchi’s mother had been arrested at all. South Tyrol state historian Gerald Steinacher said in an interview with the AP that Capecchi’s story of his mother’s arrest didn’t easily fit into general history.
“(My mother) refused to talk about her war experience,” Capecchi said.
Capecchi only recently learned he had a half-sister by his mother.
“Last week I had the opportunity to meet her for the first time,” he said. “She was nice — just as a sister should be.”
According to AP records, his mother had an affair and gave birth to Marlene Ramberg in 1939 when Capecchi was just a few years old.
Capecchi never knew what happened to his half sister, and was only aware that his mother had arranged for him to live on a farm with a peasant family before her arrest.
“For reasons that have never been clear to me, my mother’s money ran out,” he said. He said that he does remember working with women in the family squashing grapes with their feet and distinctly recalls the putrid odor. However, from there Capecchi remembers wandering by himself through the streets of Italy.
The AP reported that records indicated Capecchi was cared for by his father and was not an orphan. Capecchi said he does remember staying with his father on random occasions and that his father was abusive. He doesn’t remember his father coming to collect him from the farm at which he was staying.
Capecchi said he has been receiving letters from people who apparently knew him in Italy.
“A young man recently wrote to me, remembering me as a member of his street gang,” he said.
Capecchi also received a letter from a priest who he remembers showed him compassion at an orphanage. “(The priest) recounted instances that are similar to my memory,” he said.
Lorris Betz, vice president of health sciences at the U, was in the audience during the talk and thought Capecchi had been generous in acknowledging the AP story.
“Some reporters have been focusing too much on fine details that most of us don’t remember from that part of life,” he said. “It distracts from his achievements.”