57 “Think about destiny” Bartali, Tutto sbagliato, 47.
58 “Sir, my faith” Robert Bré, “Il ne faut pas confondre Bartali coureur avec Bartali ‘civil,’ ” L’Auto, August 1, 1938: 5.
59 “Niente”—“No!” Géo Villetan, “Le Tour continue,” Paris-Soir, July 27, 1938: 9.
60 Bartali wearing a muddy jersey and a dusty cap Géo Villetan, “Le ‘Parc’ est plein … c’est jour de fête!” Paris-Soir, August 1, 1938: 8.
61 “I have realized one of the dreams” L’Intransigeant, August 1, 1938: 6A.
62 “Seeing you pedal, Gino,” Ibid.
63 “During a moment when my legs” Ibid.
64 medal for “athletic valor” Roghi, “Da un traguardo all’altro,” 1.
65 Mussolini’s sports ambassador to Italy Ibid.
66 “democracy and international pigswill” Sisto Favre, “Il valore e lo spirito della vittoria azzurra,” Lo Sport Fascista, August 1938: 14.
67 “The ovations” Roghi, “Da un traguardo all’altro,” 1.
68 address to French radio listeners: “Radio-Arrivée du 32ème Tour de France au Parc des Princes—Radio Actualités Françaises,” Radio and Newsreel Archives from Inatheque de France, at the Bibliothèque Nationale de France.
69 “In 1938, everyone knew” Author interview with Italian historian Mauro Canali, August 10, 2009.
70 “holding high the colors” “Da Lilla a Parigi,” Il Popolo d’Italia, August 1, 1938: 1.
71 “mumbled” Gino Bartali file, Ministero dell’ Interno, Divisione di Pubblica Sicurezza, Divisione Polizia Politica 13 157, 1 Pacco #82, Fascicoli #70, 82 #66.
72 “I present to you” André Bourdonnay, “Le premier acte de Bartali ce matin fut d’aller déposer des fleurs à Notre-Dame des Victoires,” Paris-Soir, August 2, 1938: 6.
73 “An Italian wins the Tour de France” Robert Perrier, “Nul est prophète dans son pays,” L’Auto, August 5, 1938: 1, 3.
74 first appearance as a Tour champion “Au Velodrome de Turin” L’Auto, August 5, 1938: 4.
75 she cried softly Ibid.
76 Details on the Ufficio Stampa Arnd Krüger and William Murray, eds., The Nazi Olympics: Sports, Politics and Appeasement in the 1930s (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2003), 115.
77 “The newspapers should cover Bartali exclusively as a sportsman” Report from August 9, 1938, F. Flora, Stampa dell’era fascista: Le note di servizio (Rome: Mondadori, 1945), 79.
PART II
CHAPTER 6. FROM THE STARS TO THE STABLES
We based our discussion of the Racial Laws in Italy, and their impact, on the following sources: Susan Zuccotti, The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival (New York: Basic Books, 1987), 5–6; Susan Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000); Michele Sarfatti, The Jews in Mussolini’s Italy: From Equality to Persecution, trans. by John and Anne C. Tedeschi (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 2006); Patrick J.Gallo, For Love and Country: The Italian Resistance (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 2003), 16; Mirjam Viterbi Ben Horin, Con gli occhi di allora: Una bambina ebrea e le leggi razziali (Brescia: Editrice Morcelliana, 2008), 15; Racial Policies in Fascist Italy: New Documents and Perspectives, a conference and exhibit organized in New York by the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation (CDEC) in Milan and several American organizations, fall 2010.
To illuminate the day-to-day experience of living in Italy during the Racial Laws, we spoke with the following survivors of the Holocaust in Italy: Giorgio Goldenberg (December 20, 2010; January 25, 2011; April 4, 2011; and November 14, 2011); Giulia Donati (January 26 and 28, 2011); Giorgina Rietti (August 5, 2009; November 6, 2009; and September 11, 2010); Graziella Viterbi (July 14, 2009, and August 31, 2009); Gianna Maionica (November 22, 2007; August 4, 2009); Hella Kropf (January 15, 2008, and August 4, 2009); Cesare Sacerdoti (October 19, 2010); Claudia Maria Amati (February 1, 2011); Lya Haberman Quitt (October 20, 2011); and Renzo Ventura, a son of survivors (July 27, 2009). We also consulted video and audio testimonies from the following individuals: Enrico Maionica (University of Southern California Shoah Foundation interview by Susanna Segrè, April 30, 1998); Emanuele Pacifici (USC Shoah Foundation interview by Silvia Antonucci, March 10, 1998); Louis Goldman (USC Shoah Foundation interview by James Bond, February 3, 1995).
1 bad team strategy Gino Bartali with Romano Beghelli and Marcello Lazzerini, La leggenda di Bartali (Firenze: Ponte Alle Grazie Editori, 1992), 86.
2 spy report speculated Gino Bartali file, Ministero dell’ Interno, Divisione di Pubblica Sicurezza, Divisione Polizia Politica 13 157, 1 Pacco #82, Fascicoli #70, 82 #66.
3 “But the noise of them en masse” Gino Bartali with Mario Pancera, La mia storia (Milano: Stampa Sportiva, 1958), 52.
4 “Milanese, you are not sportsmen!” Bartali, La leggenda, 52.
5 “The pedestal of fame is neither very comfortable” Bartali, La mia storia, 51.
6 “bronzed faces bent over handlebars” Orio Vergani, Corriere delle Sera, June 7, 1936.
7 Giorgio’s experience of the Racial Laws Author interviews with Giorgio Goldenberg.
8 Jewish children banned from state schools Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows, 42; Sarfatti, The Jews in Mussolini’s Italy, 155.
9 Even in Nazi Germany Michele Sarfatti, director of the Center for Contemporary Jewish Documentation, in a roundtable discussion, “Beyond the Racial Laws, Fascist Anti-Semitism Revisited,” Museum for Jewish Heritage, November 3, 2010.
10 Jewish job loss in Italy “Italy’s ‘Race’ Laws Take 15, 000 Jobs,” New York Times, November 20, 1938.
11 “No Entry to Jews and Dogs” USC interview with Enrico Maionica.
12 Jewish obituaries Author interview with Giulia Donati.
13 “We went from the stars to the stables” Author interview with Graziella Viterbi, July 14, 2009.
14 with fierce determination Bartali, La leggenda, 87.
15 “reed-thin lad” Fausto’s coach, Biagio Cavanna, as quoted in William Fotheringham, Fallen Angel: The Passion of Fausto Coppi (London: Yellow Jersey Press, 2009), 20.
16 “more like a thin, starving goat than a cyclist” Ibid.
17 Coppi’s background and early training Ibid, 9, 20, 24.
18 Early interactions between Gino and Coppi Jean-Paul Ollivier, Fausto Coppi (Paris: Éditions PAC, 1985), 14; Bartali, La leggenda, 100.
19 newest reconnaissance strategy Gian Paolo Ormezzano with Marina Coppi and Andrea Bartali, Coppi & Bartali (Milano: Edizioni San Paolo, 2009), 137.
20 throbbing pain Bartali, Tutto sbagliato, 62; Bartali, La mia storia, 54.
21 “A great tragedy was to befall us all” Bartali, La leggenda, 109.
22 Arrest of the Kleins in Fiume Author interviews with Giorgio Goldenberg.
23 Experience of foreign nationals Mary Felstiner, Refuge and Persecution in Italy, 1933–1945, translated by Martha Humphreys and Sybil Milton (Simon Wiesenthal Center Annual, vol. 4); Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows, 83.
24 Villa La Selva Nissim Labi was an Italian Jew who was imprisoned in Villa La Selva during World War II. Labi’s testimony was consulted at the Yad Vashem library, Jerusalem, Israel. Researchers at the Bagno a Ripoli library helped uncover details about this camp (author interviews with Raffaele Marconi and Maria Pagnini, August 12 and September 11, 2009).
25 allowance of 6.5 lire for food At different camps throughout Italy, 6.5 lire was the daily allowance given to prisoners. Felstiner, Refuge and Persecution.
26 a bowl of watery soup Testimony of Nissim Labi.
27 The Goldenbergs’ life in Fiesole and Gino Bartali’s visit Author interviews with Giorgio Goldenberg.
28 “Bartali was a kind of demigod” Author interview with Giorgio Goldenberg, December 20, 2010.
29 “Don’t worry, I won’t end up beneath the bombs” Bartali as quoted in Leo Turrini, Bartali: L’uomo che salvo’ l’Italia pedalando (Mil
ano: Mondadori, 2004), 20.
30 Adriana’s older brother Author interview with Adriana Bartali.
31 check up Bartali, La mia storia, 54; Jean-Paul Ollivier, Le Lion de Toscane: La Véridique Histoire de Gino Bartali (Grenoble: Editions de l’Aurore, 1991), 97–98.
32 didn’t like carrying a gun Bartali, La leggenda, 115.
33 Olesindo Salmi Bartali, La mia storia, 56; Ollivier, Le Lion, 98.
34 “I plunged myself into reading” Bartali quoted in Ollivier, Le Lion, 99.
35 “Gino, the chatterbox” Bartali quoted in Ollivier, Le Lion, 99.
36 No one knows what will happen Bartali, La leggenda, 110.
37 “Better a widow than a girlfriend” Ibid.
38 “My dream from boyhood, for my future” Bartali quoted in Paolo Alberati, Gino Bartali: Mille diavoli in corpo (Firenze: Giunti, 2006), 46.
39 “the moment was a bit peculiar” Author interview with Adriana Bartali, July 17, 2009.
40 Gino and Adriana’s wedding, honeymoon, and reception Author interviews with Andrea and Adriana Bartali. 104 “It was all racing around” Author interview with Adriana Bartali, July 17, 2009.
41 Food shortages Carole Counihan, Around the Tuscan Table (New York: Routledge, 2004), 24, 52; Alberto Marcolin, Firenze 1943–’45: Anni di terrore e di fame, fascisti e antifascisti (Firenze: Edizioni Medicea, 1994), 36–37.
42 “gray as ash” Coppi quoted in Fotheringham, Fallen Angel, chapter 4.
43 “surrounded by people who are thinking only about races” Bartali quoted in Alberati, Mille diavoli, 70.
44 giant holding cell for seven thousand Jews Sarah Fishman, The Battle for Children: World War II, Youth Crime and Juvenile Justice in Twentieth Century France (Cambridge, MA: Harvard Historical Studies, 2002), 72.
45 Coppi would spend the rest of World War II Coppi arrived in Africa in March 1943. For a detailed account of his time there, see chapter 4 of Fotheringham’s Fallen Angel.
46 “It was beautiful” Author interview with Giulia Donati.
47 Ubaldo Pugnaloni’s race Fotheringham, Fallen Angel, 55–56.
48 prominent anti-Semitic newspaper editor Zuccotti, The Italians, 71.
49 Killer of Matteoti arrested Marcolin, Firenze 1943–’45, 24.
50 many (though not all) prisoners in internment camps Author interview with Dr. Iael Nidam-Orvieto, editor-in-chief of Yad Vashem publications, January 24, 2011.
51 submitted the paperwork to be discharged Bartali, La mia storia, 56.
52 others were less inclined to follow any procedures Zuccotti, The Italians, 6–7.
53 Figures on captured and imprisoned soldiers Zuccotti, The Italians, 7.
54 Gino gathered up his family Bartali, La leggenda, 120.
55 “In this little lost corner” Ollivier, Le Lion, 99.
56 long, restless hours in bed Ibid.
57 “Are you Gino Bartali?” Bartali, La leggenda, 120, 122.
CHAPTER 7. AN IMPOSSIBLE CHOICE
We know of Gino Bartali’s participation in Dalla Costa’s rescue effort in Tuscany and Umbria because of accounts left by people involved in the network (Fr. Rufino Niccacci and Trento Brizi), and the testimonies of people who personally saw him or interacted with him when he was picking up documents or dropping them off (Fr. Pier Damiano, Sister Alfonsina, and Sister Eleonora Bifarini). Giulia Donati, a Jewish survivor, has testified that Bartali delivered false identity documents to the house where she and her family were hiding, but was turned away by the Gentile woman who was sheltering them (who panicked). Renzo Ventura, the son of Jewish survivors, has testified that his mother and grandparents found out soon after the war ended that Gino was the one who brought their identity documents to Florence.
We know of Gino’s close relationship with Dalla Costa from interviews with two of Dalla Costa’s colleagues (Fr. Attilio Piccini and Fr. Giulio Villani) and interviews with Adriana and Andrea Bartali. Unfortunately, Gino left no detailed firsthand account of how Cardinal Dalla Costa asked him to join the network, or on what exact date this happened in the fall of 1943. Interviews with Gino’s wife, Adriana, and son Andrea confirmed the meeting occurred and that it was likely late November or early December 1943.
We used the testimony of another individual, a priest named Don Leto Casini, recruited by Dalla Costa to work in the same network, to construct the scene of Dalla Costa asking Gino to join the network. Marcolin’s Firenze 1943–’45: Anni di terrore e di fame, fascisti e antifascisti—(Firenze: Edizioni Medicea, 1994), illuminated the day-to-day life in Florence at that time. We also relied on extensive interviews with Gino’s family and his closest friends, as well as interviews with Dalla Costa’s colleagues and Italian Jews whom Dalla Costa helped, to characterize how each man would have likely behaved during this meeting.
1 Dalla Costa had never been one to call just to chat Author interview with Attilio Piccini, October 20, 2009. Piccini worked with Cardinal Dalla Costa at the Sparugoru Murbis convent and, in later years, helped Dalla Costa’s secretary, Monsignor Giacomo Meneghello.
2 “Old things, old places” Henry James, Collected Travel Writings: The Continent (New York: Penguin, 1993), 533.
3 first war damages Marcolin, Firenze 1943–’45, 52.
4 stagings of Shakespeare and Chekhov Ibid., 39.
5 Florentines traded their valuables Ibid., 51.
6 Scavenging garbage at market for food and hunting stray cats Carole Counihan, Around the Tuscan Table (New York: Routledge, 2004), 52.
7 Description of cardinal’s secretary, Giacomo Meneghello Author interview with Lya Quitt Haberman, October 20, 2011. Haberman was saved by Monsignor Meneghello.
8 Cardinal’s study As described by Father Ruffino Niccacci in Alexander Ramati, The Assisi Underground: Assisi and the Nazi Occupation as told by Padre Rufino Niccacci (London: Unwin, 1978), 47.
9 Elia Dalla Costa’s appearance Photograph of Dalla Costa at Gino Bartali’s wedding, November 14, 1940, Fotocronache Olympia, Milano.
10 Seventy-one years old “Milestones,” Time, December 29, 1961.
11 Dalla Costa as a rumored papal candidate Elia Dalla Costa file, Ministero dell’ Interno, Divisione di Pubblica Sicurezza, Divisione Polizia Politica 13 157, 2 Pacco #378, Fascicoli #70, 378, #9. Already in 1933 (on March 19 and April 25), secret reports by Fascist spies discuss Dalla Costa as one of the probable successors to the Pope.
12 a quick judge of character Author interview with Attilio Piccini, October 20, 2009.
13 “like a father does on his own sons” Ibid.
14 Dalla Costa’s involvement in rescue effort For discussion of how and when Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa started helping, see Susan Zuccotti, The Italians and the Holocaust: Persecution, Rescue, and Survival (New York: Basic Books, 1987), 211; Susan Zuccotti, Holocaust Odysseys: The Jews of Saint-Martin-Vésubie and Their Flight through France and Italy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2007), 161; Susan Zuccotti, “The Rescue of Jews in Italy and the Existence of a Papal Directive,” in Nazi Europe and the Final Solution, edited by David Bankier and Israel Gutman (Israel: Yad Vashem, 2003), 532; Louis Goldman, Amici per la vita (Florence: Coppini, 1999), 59–60.
15 Meneghello received Jewish refugees Zuccotti, “The Rescue of Jews in Italy,” 532; Susan Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows: The Vatican and the Holocaust in Italy (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000), 252.
16 Another priest recruited to reach out to various convents Zuccotti, Holocaust Odysseys, 161; Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows, 253.
17 “He told us to peremptorily” Interview with Monsignor Giulio Villani at the Archivio della Curia Fiorentina, as quoted in Alberati, Mille diavoli, 86–90.
18 Cardinal houses and feeds several Jews Author interview with Lya Haberman Quitt, October 20, 2011.
19 Cardinal’s speaking manner Author interview with Attilio Piccini, October 20, 2009.
20 refugees needed food, shelter, and false identity documents Zuccotti, Holocaust Odysseys, 160.
21
Threat of imprisonment, execution, or deportation Casini, Ricordi, 49–50. After the Carta di Verona, which identified Jews as enemies of the state, it was widely understood that helping an enemy of the state was dangerous and punishable. Author interview with Dr. Iael Nidam-Orvieto, editor-in-chief of Yad Vashem Publications, January 24, 2011.
22 Danger of Italian Fascists David Tutaev, The Consul of Florence (London: Secker & Warburg, 1966), 142.
23 Importance of secrecy Casini discusses the importance of secrecy, as Fascist spies were everywhere. On November 26, 1943, several members of the network including Casini and the Rabbi of Florence were arrested after a Fascist spy had infiltrated their group. The Rabbi of Florence ultimately perished in Auschwitz. Casini, Ricordi, 52–53.
24 an alarming piece of news Author interview with Dr. Iael Nidam-Orvieto, editor-in-chief of Yad Vashem Publications, January 24, 2011.
25 Giorgio Goldenberg taken to live at the Santa Marta Institute Author interview with Giorgio Goldenberg. For additional details on how Dalla Costa approached local convents to house Jewish refugees, see Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows, 253.
26 a reward of anywhere from one thousand to nine thousand lire per person Zuccotti, The Italians, 156. 117 Average factory worker earnings Ibid.
27 Allied prisoners worth just 1,800 lire in reward Marcolin, Firenze 1943–’45, 28.
28 Carta di Verona, “Those belonging to the Jewish race are foreigners” Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows, 215–16.
29 Arrest danger for all Jews on Italian soil Zuccotti, The Italians, 159–60; Alexander Stille, Benevolence and Betrayal: Five Italian Jewish Families Under Fascism (New York: Picador, 1991), 259; Zuccotti, Under His Very Windows, 254–57.
30 Goldenberg and Sizzi’s meeting Author interview with Giorgio Goldenberg.
31 Sizzi’s background Adam Smulevich, interview with Andrea Bartali, Pagine Ebraiche, February 2011, discussing Andrea Bartali’s reaction to Giorgio Goldenberg’s testimony; Alberati, Mille diavoli, 13 and 75.
32 Gino’s real estate investments Author interviews with Andrea and Adriana Bartali, July 17, 2009; Sepember 14, 2009; August 3, 2009. In that era, real estate was a popular investment for cyclists with money. Giorgio Goldenberg and Andrea Bartali believed that Gino owned the apartment, but it’s also possible that Gino leased the apartment under his own name and let the Goldenbergs live in it secretly.
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