In 1948, he won the Tour de France for the second time, having trained a lot during the war to secretly and dangerously carry false id documents that saved more than 800 Jews. He was sentenced to death penalty for that.
Gino Bartali (L) with his great rival Fausto Coppi
In 2013 Israel awarded Gino Bartali the price “Righteous Among The Nations” for wartime activities
While undertaking extremely long training rides Bartali would conceal documents inside the handlebar and seat of his bicycle. When Bartali was stopped and searched, he specifically asked that his bicycle not be touched, telling the police and fascist soldiers that the different parts were very carefully calibrated to achieve maximum speed.
He also hid Giorgio Goldenberg’s family in the cellar of his own house from some time in 1943 until Florence was liberated in August 1944.
After the war, Bartali refused to discuss his activities, telling his son Andrea, “One does these things and then that’s that.”
Gino’s life
Gino Bartali was born in 1913 in Ponte a Ema, near Florence, Italy. He cultivated his passion for cycling together with his brother Giulio. Gino came from a poor, peasant family, and initially had to contend with his father and the obvious need to work. Finally succeeding in obtaining his father’s permission, Bartali begins to participate in cycling races and win all the major prizes.
A war hero, without shooting
During World War II the races end, Bartali remains in Florence, actively participating in the resistance but not with arms. In fact, exposing himself to enormous risk, he offered a valuable contribution by transporting documents, hidden inside his bicycle, on behalf of his friend Cardinal Dalla Costa and a network of Jews and other Italians that saved Jews. Many Jews were hidden in homes or convents, but it was necessary to provide them with false documents. Some Catholics had more or less serious complicity or laissez-faire with fascism and the criminal deportation of Jews. Others, like cardinal Dalla Costa, did their best to help Jews or oppose fascism.
He never told anybody anything about the people he saved
In 2013 Israel gave Bartali (and cardinal Dalla Costa) an award, after his death, as “Righteous Among the Nations,” for saving more than 800 Jews from deportation. It is an award they give to those who saved the life of at least one Jew. The humble Bartali never boasted during his lifetime that he had saved hundreds of Jews, in fact he told no one.
Bartali is arrested for desertion, and subversive activities, by Fascist police, suspicious of a letter from the cardinal thanking the cyclist for “the donated vegetables,” a clear coded message of thanks for the contribution Bartali was making to the resistance. Bartali’s precious bicycle was taken from him and his arrest was confirmed with a sentence of execution.
The arrival of the Allies in Florence puts the fascist Black Brigades on the run and Bartali is freed.
The time comes for the 1948 Tour de France. Gino accomplishes the feat: he unexpectedly wins the Tour de France, at age 35, also representing a huge help in keeping the country united and overcoming the difficult moment of crisis following the assassination attempt on Palmiro Togliatti, leader of the PCI, Italian.
Gino Bartali received the honorary citizenship of Israel and the Gold Medal for Civic Merits of Italy, both postume, because he never unveiled his good deeds during his lifetime.
Top image courtesy of Fondazione Isec.
