Vincenti Federico

Vincenti, Don Federico Don Federico Vincenti, born in 1885, was the head of the Parochial House of the Church of Sant’Andrea in Porta Santa Susanna in Perugia. During the war, he also cooperated with the rescue network in Assisi. According to testimonies, he risked his life to save 32 persecuted Jews belonging to the families Corinaldi, Viterbi, Provenzal, Klugmann, and Fano among others. He was involved in harboring Jews, finding new hiding places, and transmitting vital information. The courage and benevolence of this small, thin man, were mentioned by Father Aldo Brunacci*, one of the central figures in the rescue network in Assisi. He described how the house of Father Vincenti developed into a center for all Jewish refugees in Perugia and its surroundings. A group of young Jews were accommodated in the attic of the house. Others were put up in buildings owned by the church or in private homes. Both Dr. Grazia Viterbi, and her sister, Dr. Miriam Ben Horin were saved by Don Vincenti. They and their parents were refugees in Assisi in 1943-1944. Grazia Viterbi recalled that she met her good friends from Trieste, the Klugmann brothers at the home of Don Vincenti. Miriam Ben Horin mentioned that Don Vincenti had arranged a hiding place in Perugia for her family, but for various reasons, this was postponed, and the house remained vacant. Sometime later they heard that the house where they had planned to go had been bombed and destroyed. Don Vincenti sent them a message that God should be thanked for the fact that they had not been there. Don Vincenti’s address appears on the ration cards of the Viterbi family, who were then called Vitelli. In 1955, during the tenth-anniversary celebrations of the liberation of Italy, the Jewish community of Trieste intended to honor Don Vincenti with a gold medal in appreciation of his contribution to the salvation of Jews. Unfortunately, the recipient of this honor did not live long enough to attend the ceremony; he passed awayonly a few days before. Remo Bistoni wrote about Vincenti’s role in the rescue of Jews in his book, Federico Vincenti Sacerdote (1990). On July 16, 1997, Yad Vashem recognized Don Federico Vincenti as Righteous Among the Nations.