Montesano Giuseppe & Filomena (Bianculli)

Giuseppe & Filomena Montesano The Roccas family – Goffredo, Margherita (née Calabi), and their daughters, Nicoletta (b. 1936) and Luciana (b. 1938) – lived in Rome. In 1938, following the imposition of the racist laws, Goffredo, who was a lawyer by profession, was forbidden to take on non-Jewish clients and his name was deleted from the list of accredited lawyers. Nevertheless, he continued to work for the law office of Montesano & Lais – two lawyers with whom he had developed a friendly relationship. After the German invasion in September 1943, Goffredo was the vice-president of the Jewish community in Rome. On 26 September, the leaders of the Jewish community of Rome were ordered to provide 50 kg of gold within 36 hours in exchange for the safety of the Jewish community. Jews and non-Jews donated their gold, and although the community complied with the order, the Germans broke into their offices, took the lists of the Jews, confiscated valuables, and continued with their plans for the deportation of the Jews. Realizing the danger in which the Jewish family now found itself, Giuseppe Montesano offered to shelter Nicoletta and Luciana Roccas in his house. However, during the roundup of the Jews of Rome on 16 October, the family was still in its apartment. They managed to escape thanks to a warning they received from the concierge of the building. For a few days they ran from place to place, seeking refuge. They then brought the girls to the Montesano home. Giuseppe and his wife Filomena immediately took them in, presenting the girls as their nieces who had fled their bombed-out town in the south of the country. They looked after Nicoletta and Luciana until the town was liberated. They were also hiding their own son, who was trying to avoid conscription to the republican fascist army. In their testimony to Yad Vashem, Nicoletta and Luciana Roccas spoke of the remarkable warmth with which the Montesanos treated them during their stay: Filomena lovedthem unconditionally, made sure they had enough to eat, and even read them stories. Giuseppe treated them with cookies every Sunday. As the apartment was very small, the girls slept in the same room as Giuseppe and Filomena. Every so often, the former non-Jewish housekeeper would come to take them to visit their mother, who was hospitalized under a forged identity in the Quisisana hospital after giving birth to a son and falling sick with postpartum infection. One time they even managed to see their father, who was hiding in a monastery and had lost a lot of weight. Luciana added in her testimony that despite their devout devotion to Catholicism, the Montesanos would bring them to church but never pressured them to convert. She herself was a particularly mischievous child, she recounted, and refused to use her assumed name. One day, when they were passing the German base in the town, she called out, "This is Radio London, a special announcement!" The Montesanos never asked for any compensation for their care of the two girls. After liberation, Goffredo went back to work in the same law office, and the families remained close friends. On 20 June 2006 Yad Vashem recognized Giuseppe and Filomena Montesano as Righteous Among the Nations.