This is a true story about a great Italian hero. His name was Gino Bartoli. Perhaps
@GiorgiaMeloni may learn something from this manโs story. Italy seems to have forgotten what true heroism is.
Gino Bartali was one of the greatest cyclists of his generation. An Italian who won the Tour de France in 1938 and again in 1948, he was known as the Giant of the Mountains and carried the hopes of a country that lived for the sport.
After the Germans occupied northern and central Italy in 1943, Bartali quietly put that fame to different use. Working with the Archbishop of Florence, Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa, and with Rabbi Nathan Cassuto, he became a courier for a rescue network that hid Jews from deportation.
On the pretext of training rides, he pedaled hundreds of miles between Florence, Assisi, and other towns with forged identity papers and documents concealed inside the frame and handlebars of his bicycle. Checkpoints usually waved him through because they recognized the champion. The papers he delivered allowed hundreds of people to pass as non-Jews and reach safety.
Bartali also hid a Jewish family in an apartment he owned in Florence and supported them until liberation. He never spoke about any of it after the war. Only years later did the full story emerge.
Yad Vashem eventually recognized him as Righteous Among the Nations. The commonly cited figure is that his efforts helped save around 800 Jews. He simply treated the risk as something that had to be done and then went back to racing.
Gino Bartoli. Remember his name
Video Credit: Terrifying Myths and History