Originally Posted by
John E
Thanks for the tip on "My Italian Secret" -- my wife and I just watched it on Netflix. Even though I am a cycling enthusiast who grew up in largely Jewish neighborhoods in west Los Angeles and bought my first house in the Pico-Robertson district, where the languages most often heard on the street were Yiddish, German, and Russian, I am embarrassed to say that I did not know about Bartali's role in WWII. What a Mensch!
Probably not such a mensch John, according to the linked BBC story, Bartali made his son swear not to speak about the actions during the war to help the Jewish from annihilation by the Fascist government in Italy. And, he didn't believe in talking about actions to help others.
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"When I asked my father why I couldn't tell anyone, he said, 'You must do good, but you must not talk about it. If you talk about it you're taking advantage of others misfortunes' for your own gain.'"
(excerpted from on-line BBC Belfast, 9 March 2014, Peter Crutchley.) Amazing that his story remained a secret for so many years.
The article mentioned one thing I didn't know, makes me a mensch too I suppose, Gino Bartali was proclaimed a Righteous Among Nations, by Yad Vashem.
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Last September he was posthumously awarded with the honour Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust memorial and education centre in Jerusalem.
(citation ibid)
Not very many gentiles have been accorded with this honor, one that comes to mind is Oscar Schindler.
Bartali's risking his very life hits close to home in my family, my uncle, 1LT Honson Owen, USAAC, was shot down over Holland on a bombing run and hidden by the Dutch underground resistance for a long period. Eventually a turn coat went to the Nazi gestapo and ratted the family hiding him out. He was taken prisoner of war. The brave family that hid him was executed, in whole, for their actions.