During WWII, many men and women risked their lives in order to help Jews who fled from the Nazis; a Foundation affixes plaques in the sites that sheltered them and rescues inspiring stories.
The shaken world we are living in compels us to shed light on small – and oftentimes ignored – efforts to help fellow human beings. Not any effort but those that put in risk the life itself. These efforts abound, and also abundant is the silence around these moving feats.
Amidst such ignorance a new will was born to discover and honor sites and people that played a key role in this type of help deeds during WWII. The initiative was launched at a worldwide level by the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation and in a matter of months it has achieved the support of numerous institutions in various countries. One of the most moving and firm displays of assistance was given by the Catholic University of Lumsa, in Rome, which offered a team of its scholars to help in the task. The objective of the Houses of Life project is to identify, mark and pay tribute to those who brought upon their own lives, as well as the lives of their friends and relatives, a great danger due to their efforts to reach-out to those in need. We are talking of public and private locations, convents, monasteries, churches, farms, residential houses, in which those persecuted by the Nazi-Fascism, found shelter, protection, food and medicines.
The Wallenberg Foundations affixed plaques and held ceremonies at the General Curia of the Capuchin Brotherhood (Rome), at the headquarters of the Franciscan Sisters (Florence) and the Santa Brigida House (Rome). Last year, similar ceremonies were held at Catholic and Protestant churches and convents in Belgium, Hungary, Italy, Holland, France and Poland. In a short period of time, data started to unravel, showing the heroism of many people who confronted the murderous brutality by hiding the victims, mostly children. This applies not just to WWII but also to the 1915 Armenian Genocide.
The number of sprouting stories seems like a blooming forest full of amazing documents. They give you goosebumps and make your heart beat fast. Every time I get a new testimony, I regain my hope in human dignity. These cases help to step-up the fight against fanaticism and violence, which are widespread nowadays. I will bring here a few summarized cases at random.
The inhabitants of the tiny little ionian island of Ereikousa gave shelter to Jews of Corfu. First, they were hidden by the local priest, Andronikos and afterwards they were distributed among the other islanders, even during the perilous incursions made by Nazi soldiers in disguise. The details of these feats are told in the book – “When the Cypress Whispers”, by Yvette Corporon.
Villa Mondragone, which used to be a residence of the Popes and nowadays serves as the headquarters of the prestigious Tor Vergata University, with more than 30,000 students, was recognized as a House of Life by the Wallenberg Foundation as its secular walls saved many children during the Nazi occupation, especially thanks to the courage of the Maronite priest, Raffaele de Ghantuz Cubbe. Back in 1943, where the Nazis became the masters of Italy, Mondragone, situated 20 Km from Rome, was a school run by Jesuits. Father Ghantuz Cubbe promptly took upon himself the task to hide Jews while disguising their identity in order to avoid any betrayal.
During 1943 and 1944, a mountain village in central Italy agreed to hide persecuted families. It is the town of Terzone di Leonessa, nearby Rieti, with only 340 inhabitants at that time. This noble people exposed themselves to great risk by giving shelter and food, for a period of months, to Jews of various ages. In a celebration that was held last December 21, the village was proclaimed as a House of Life. The story was reenacted by Marco Pisetzky, one of the young boys who found refuge there during the war. Paradoxically, he said that those were happy years because, despite the persecution, the villagers were pouring on them a lot of affection. “The priest, he claimed, never tried to convert us nor asked for money. Moreover, knowing that we did not have even a coin, he used to go to the farms to collect meat and eggs. The local villagers knew we were Jewish and the partisans would bring us food during the night”.
In those years, anti-Semitic prejudice prevailed among many Christians around the world. Not only did the latter see the Jews as “perfidious”, but also as a God-killing people. Their salvation would only be possible through religious conversion. This prejudice was 2,000 years old and it was very difficult to eradicate. Hence the killings persecutions, expulsions and pogroms were acceptable. The judeophobe racism of the Nazis was able to seduce the cultured German people, as well as others, exactly because of this aberration. Well-meant people were keen to convert the Jews, with the naïve hope of putting an end to their suffering. But this ceased to be a religious issue, and infamously escalated to a racial context. In other words, this has become an unsolvable problem.
And yet, many documents reveal the conflict experienced by many kind souls who tried to achieve the redeeming conversion. I will summarize a few testimonies.
“Nun Nicole would insist. I told her to ask my 15 years old sister and I would follow her decision. My sister explained to her that we have promised our parents, when they were deported, that we would keep our Jewish faith. We would convert upon their return. Sister Nicole would not touch this issue anymore”.
“My name is Alice. I was despaired. I begged the Sisters to baptize me but they refused arguing something that seemed out of place: we would do it only if your parents agree to it. I knew a thing or two about Catholicism and I thought it was marvelous that their God sacrificed himself to save me. When my siblings appeared in the convent, I wanted to share with them my happiness I gained through my new religion. I almost shouted: “Their God, Jesus, sacrificed himself for us, he died in the cross for us”!”. My elder sister stared at me and said we should wait for our parents. The nuns agreed with her”.
“Like Sister Henriette, I always distrusted the Jews. When my superior decided to hide several children in our convent, I looked at them with derision. Oftentimes I argued with them. After all, I was taught that their forefathers had killed Jesus. But in less than a month, I started to love them. I gave them food and sung songs for them”.
“I am Daniel and I used to pray Shma Israel (Listen Israel) before going to sleep. I would cover myself with the sheets and I would whisper in a low voice, so that the priest would not hear me. At the end of the war I realized that I was a Christian. I participated in the Choir, I was a good pupil and when leaving the convent, I took stamps of Jesus and the Virgin. Soon I realized that both of them were the Jews who best accompanied me”.
Judeophobia is far from having disappeared. Despite the unbeatable testimonies about the Holocaust, there still exist governments and entities that deny it or mock it. Their statements do not generate the deserved condemnation not even from organizations that are supposed to fight for human rights. The Houses of Life, which are now being properly honored, start to work like vaccines: They raise the resistance against the aggression of germs which degrade the morality of the world.
Translation: IRWF
