The blessing of Gino Bartali

Continuing on yesterday’s theme, another object that was to prove invaluable in saving Jews during the war was the bicycle of champion cyclist Gino Bartali. He had won the Giro d’Italia in 1936 and 1937 as well as the Tour de France in 1938. He was one of the most famous Italians at the time of World War II and trained all over Italy. Bartali was a devout Catholic and friends with Florence’s Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa, who officiated at Bartali’s wedding. One day, Cardinal Dalla Costa asked Bartali to help the Church’s quest to save Jews, and from that day forward, Bartali began to bike between Assisi and Florence, picking up and delivering false identity papers. That was a distance of 85 miles, probably more like 100-110 miles with meandering roads. For a professional cyclist like Bartali, that was a piece of cake as most cyclists bike around 150 miles a day during the big Tours. The papers were rolled up and hidden inside the frame of his bicycle. Every Jew in Assisi was saved, as well as countless others in the north of Italy, through these heroic efforts.