Verolino Gennaro

Verolino, Gennaro In 1944, Father Gennaro Verolino was the secretary of Monsignor Angelo Rotta*, the Apostolic Nuncio (the Vatican’s representative) in Hungary. After the German invasion of Hungary in March, Msgr. Rotta was the first diplomat of a neutral state to press the Catholic Church and the Hungarian establishment to act against the new anti-Jewish policies. In the summer and winter of 1944, Rotta was a signatory on open letters of protest sent by representatives of the neutral countries to the Hungarian Fascist regime. These letters called for the end of the deportations, and demanded protection for Jewish children. But Rotta did not limit his efforts to diplomatic measures. Beginning in the summer of 1944, and during the Arrow Cross period which began in October of that year, Rotta, with the help of Verolino, issued letters of Vatican protection for Jews. Per Anger*, Second Secretary at the Swedish Legation in Budapest and assistant to Raoul Wallenberg*, later testified that Verolino also cooperated with representatives of neutral states with regards to food supply, medication and medical treatment for Jews in “protected houses” in Budapest. He further wrote: “Not only was Verolino in constant danger from unrestrained local Nazi thugs, he shared the common danger of siege and bombardment with everyone else in the city.” In 1944, 13-year-old Marta Egri was placed in a Budapest Catholic institution under Vatican protection along with 80 other Jews. Despite the status of the building, Arrow Cross soldiers invaded it to arrest the Jews. Rotta and Verolino intervened, endangering their own lives, and contacted the Hungarian foreign minister to demand the return of the arrested Jews to the protected building. Egri credits this intervention with saving her life. György Ádám from Komarom was a student at the University of Budapest until he was expelled by the Germans in 1944. One day, during a heavy aerial bombardment, he hid in a Catholic highschool. When the building itself was shelled, he ran out to seek a safer shelter. Not knowing where to turn, he wandered the streets until he found himself standing in front of a building with a sign “Apostolic Nunziatura.” He rang the bell and when the doorman opened the gate, he told him of his desperate situation and then collapsed. Verolino arrived, and immediately took Ádám inside the building, and offered him food and drink. After hearing his story, Verolino told Ádám to relax, and gave him false identification papers. Ádám later recalled: “One day, much to my surprise, Father Verolino gave me a statement, confirmed by the Hungarian Foreign Ministry, that I was employed at the Apostolic Nunziatura as a clerk.” Every morning, Verolino and Ádám left the building to distribute letters of protection signed by Rotta, and traveled by Vatican convoy to the northwestern border to save Jews on the "death marches" toward Austria. Monsignor Gennaro Verolino died in 2005 at the age of 99. On April 30, 2007, Yad Vashem recognized Gennaro Verolino as Righteous Among the Nations.