Cyclist Gino Bartali Honored by Holocaust Museum

(AP) Cyclist Gino Bartali honored by Holocaust museum
By ANDREW DAMPF
AP Sports Writer
ROME
Gino Bartali rarely spoke about this for all these years.

During World War II, the champion cyclist _ winner of the 1938 and 1948 Tour de France _ helped rescue Jews in his native Italy by hiding forged documents and papers in the tubes and seat of his bike.

Bartali died in 2000. Now, son Andrea Bartali is leading an effort to gain recognition for what his father did.

On Thursday, Gino Bartali was honored at the Jerusalem Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. He was inducted into the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations for his work during the German occupation of Italy. He aided the Jewish-Christian rescue network in his hometown of Florence and the surrounding area.

Two Holocaust survivors Bartali helped, Giulia Baquis and Giorgio Goldenberg, attended Thursday’s ceremony. The honor recognizes non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.

Baquis told Yad Vashem that during the German occupation she was in hiding with her family at the home of two sisters in the Tuscan town of Lido di Camaiore. One day, a cyclist arrived at the door with a package and inquired about her family.

The courier was turned away because the sisters thought he might be a collaborator. After the liberation, the resistance member who had arranged the hiding place told Baquis’ parents that the messenger had been Gino Bartali.

The Jewish-Christian rescue network in Florence was led by Rabbi Nathan Cassuto and Cardinal Elia Angelo Dalla Costa, the archbishop of Florence, who was previously recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. Even after Rabbi Cassuto was arrested by the Germans, deported and sent to his death, the network continued functioning.

Goldenberg was a child when his entire family was hidden by Bartali, who was a friend of his father’s.

Oscar-nominated director Oren Jacoby just finished editing a film called “Don’t Talk About It: Italy’s Secret Heroes.” It’s a documentary that tells the story of Bartali and other Italians who helped Jews during the Holocaust.

Eighty percent of the Jews in Italy survived the war, according to the Italy and the Holocaust Foundation. Still, more than 7,000 Jews were deported under Benito Mussolini’s regime, and nearly 6,000 of them were killed.

Oct. 16 marks the 70th anniversary of the rounding up of Jews in Rome, home to Judaism’s largest community in Italy.

Before the war, Bartali had won the 1938 Tour de France and the Giro d’Italia in 1936 and `37, making him one of the country’s biggest stars. He also won the 1946 Giro and 1948 Tour after the war.

When Bartali was stopped and searched, he specifically asked that his bicycle not be touched since the different parts were very carefully calibrated to achieve maximum speed, according to Yad Vashem.

Jacoby’s film is a feature-length documentary narrated by Italian actress Isabella Rossellini. The director said he hopes to have it released by July on the 100th anniversary of Bartali’s birth.

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Associated Press Television News reporters Moshe Edri and Yaniv Zohar in Jerusalem contributed