Mazzarello Luigi

Luigi Mazzarello At the height of WWII, in the spring of 1943, when Genova was suffering from intensive bombardment, several Jews fled the city to a mountainous area north of the city. The region was relatively unpopulated, and few Jews lived there. Located on a hill in the area was a Catholic church, Santuario della Madonna della Rocchetta di Lerma. Since 1939, the priest Don Luigi Mazzarello had served as the head of the church. Before this position, he had served as a priest on a ship and as a teacher in Tunisia and in Switzerland. The priest was aided in the church by his sister Maria and her six-year-old grandson Luigi, who helped as an altar boy and was both smart and alert. Elena Brunetti, the priest's daughter-in-law, and her baby daughter Graziella, as well as the two bell-ringers, Maria Agosto (Main) and her husband Tomaso Sobrero (Maxillo), also lived in the church. There were also several other adults and children in the area. When four Jewish refugees – Enrico Levi and his wife Lisa (neé Vita Finzi), and Gastone Storia and his sister Valentina Soria – arrived at the church, Don Luigi gave them a place to stay in the church, and invited them to share their provisions. Sometimes, when food was scarce, the group was forced to prepare soup from all kinds of herbs they found in the area. One time, they all become sick from the soup; it later turned out it that it had been made of tobacco leaves. The danger of giving refuge to Jews was both imminent and clear, and little Luigi was even asked at school if he feared the Germans would kill them because they were hiding Jewish guests. Nevertheless, Don Luigi had good relations with the locals in the nearby town, and when they got wind of a search to be conducted at the church, the priest was alerted immediately. He had allotted an ingenious hiding place for the Jewish refugees: ancient tunnels dug into the stone under the church that served as Christian catacombs as well as the burial ground forthe local noblesse family, who owned the church grounds but rarely visited there. During the first search, in July 1944, twelve armed fascist militiamen came to the church. Don Luigi and little Luigi barely had time to bring the Jews down to the catacombs. The priest instructed them to enter the burial crypts, pull burial stones over them and lay absolutely still. The patrol passed by the catacombs' entrance door, but did not enter. The second time, a similar armed patrol arrived. The head of the patrol demanded to enter the catacombs, and even go down to the lower level, but he gave only a cursory look and left. The third time, in January 1945, a German army troop arrived. At that very moment, Lisa Levi was taking a short walk in the woods to get some fresh air. When the priest saw her speaking her limited German to the soldiers, he shouted and ran to her. He hugged her fondly and introduced her to the German soldiers as her niece. The soldiers behaved very politely towards her and asked her for food. Before they left, though, they also asked to see the catacombs, and the priest opened them up for them to look around. To the good fortune of the Jews hiding there, once again the soldiers did not bother to check the place thoroughly, and they were saved. After the war, the survivors gave a donation to the church, and a plaque commemorating the rescue was unveiled. They recalled how Don Luigi had showed extreme courage and resourcefulness in the face of imminent danger, and endangered himself and those close to him by hiding desperate Jews in his church. In spite of the reluctance and objection of his superior, and despite the obvious dangers, time and again he proved willing to take enormous risks to save their lives. Needless to say, he never asked or received anything in return for his courageous acts. In 1947, Don Luigi and his grandson travelled to Genova to visit the Levis and the Sorias. In 2008, a reunion was held for all the remainingfamily members in the presence of the Chief Rabbi of Genova, the Levi's granddaughter Dian Irani Levi, and Professor Gianni Repetto, who helped gather the evidence required to recognize Don Luigi as Righteous Among the Nations. On January 3, 2012, Yad Vashem recognized Don Luigi Mazzarello as Righteous Among the Nations.