Dalla Costa Elia

Cardinal Elia Angelo Dalla Costa During the Holocaust Florence became the scene of a major rescue endeavor - a joint effort of Church people, guided by Cardinal Elia Angelo Dalla Costa, Archbishop of Florence, and Jewish personalities, headed by Rabbi Nathan Cassuto and Raffaele Cantoni. This Jewish-Christian network, innitiated by Rabbi Cassuto, set up following the German occupation of Italy and the onset of deportation of Jews, saved hundreds, and possibly thousands, of local Jews and Jewish refugees from territories which had previously been under Italian control, mostly in France and Yugoslavia. Cardinal Dalla Costa initiated rescue activities and encouraged the clergy to take part in these dangerous life-saving operations. He played a crucial role in the organization and operation of the widespread rescue network, recruited rescuers from among the church people, wrote to the heads of monasteries and convents entreating them to shelter Jews, established a shelter for refugees in the Seminar Minore di Montughi, and would even sheltered fleeing Jews in his palace for short periods until they were taken to safe places. The rescue operations were financed by DELASEM, the Jewish underground aid organization. In December 1943, following a denunciation by a Jewish collaborator, most of the Jewish activists were arrested. From that time on, it was the Church people who bore most of the responsibility for maintaining and upholding the rescue effort, even though some of the church officials too were arrested and in some cases even tortured. One of the convents which became a hiding place for some fifty women and their children was the convent of the Missionary Sisters of Maria, administered by Mother Superior Sandra Busnelli and her assistant, Mother Benedetta Vespignani (both recognized as Righteous Among the Nations). On November 26, 1943, German soldiers broke into the convent and arrested all the women – except for one woman who managed to hide. The victims were taken to Verona and then, on December 6, were deported to Auschwitz. Mother Superior Busnelli wrote: "In September His Eminence Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa asked our house to clandestinely host Jews, who had fallen victim to German persecution. We hoped they would be safer in the religious houses. The Superior General of our order gladly gave her permission, and immediately fifty women were brought to the main hall." Lya Quitt testified that she had fled from France to Florence in the beginning of September 1943 and was brought to the Archbishop's palace, where she spent the night with other Jews. The following day the Jews were taken to different convents in the city. A report from 1945 authored by Eugenio Artom, a member of the Jewish underground, described the rescue activities in Florence. Artom says that he turned to the Cardinal "and under his guidance and with the active help of his noble assistant, Monsignor Meneghello, I managed to obtain financial aid for the Jews of Florence[…] By Passover we had doubled the sums thanks to a personal donation by the Archbishop". Matilda Cassin Varadi testified in 1972: "I met Father Cipriano Ricotti (recognized as Righteous Among the Nations) on 23 September 1943[…] He was introduced to me by Professor Giorgio La Pira[…], to whom I had turned on behalf of the Jewish community of Florence to ask for shelter for Jewish refugees who were streaming to Florence in great numbers from neighboring countries. The young priest agreed immediately, and without hesitating accompanied me as we set out armed with a letter signed by the Archbishop of Florence, Elia Dalla Costa, and went from one monastery to the other in order to find hiding places in religious houses in the city and its environs […]. Thus a dramatic and systematic operation was launched to take dozens of refugees to hiding places in convents […]. In addition to the arduous efforts of maintaining constant contact between the community and the hiding refugees, Father Cipriano was served as a member in the underground committee to aid the refugees. The committee members were: Don Meneghello (the Archbishop's secretary), Rabbi Nathan Cassuto, Mr. Raffaele Cantoni, who was the driving force for the management of funds, and me. This committee ran an intensive operation and convened in secret places - churches, the Archbishop's secretariat, the San Marco Monastery, etc." In another testimony Cassin-Varadi said that many of the Committee's meetings were held in the Bishop's offices. A report written immediately after the war, probably by Father Meneghello, described the activities of the rescue network, and added that the Archbishop prohibited baptizing Jews during the war even if they expressed the wish to do so. Giorgio La Pira described Dalla Costa as "the driving force of the undertaking of love to save so many brothers as possible", and Father Cipriano Ricotti wrote: "I don't know about other towns, but in Florence a genuine rescue organization was set up by the wish of Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa, the Archbishop. I remember being summoned to the Archbishop's office – it was 20 September 1943 at the latest. I presented myself, accompanied by the superior of my order, Father Raffaele Cai. The Archbishop asked me, in the presence of Monsignor Meneghello, if I believed I could devote myself to helping Jews. He gave me a letter of introduction he had written, so that I would have the authority to turn to monasteries – many of which may not have opened their gates, had I not such a letter in my possession – so as to find shelter for the numerous suffering persons". On 29 February 2012 Yad Vashem recognized Cardinal Elia Angelo Dalla Costa as Righteous Among the Nations.