If you talk about the national icons of cycling in Italy, names like Marco Pantani, Fausto Coppi – or Gino Bartali come up. The latter won the Tour de France in 1938 and 1948 and triumphed three times in the Giro d’Italia. However, he did not complete his most important kilometers in the grand tours, his greatest achievement was not a stage win or a yellow jersey. Because during the Second World War, Bartali saved the lives of hundreds of Italian Jews on a bicycle.
In 1943, after the end of Mussolini’s rule, the Wehrmacht occupied large parts of Italy. The Jews, who had been harassed for years under the fascist dictator, are now being deported to concentration camps by the Nazis, as in many other countries. The resistance group DELASEM tries to save as many people as possible from this fate. And for that she needs the help of Gino Bartali, among others.
The cyclist, 29 years old, is a deeply religious person – and at that point in time he was already well known in the country for his sporting successes. The Archbishop of Florence therefore approaches him with a request: Bartali should help smuggle documents from Florence to the Franciscan monastery in Assisi. These included fake passports and passport photos intended to enable Jews hidden in Assisi to escape. Bartali seems the perfect candidate for this mission: As a cyclist, he can regularly cover the 180-kilometer route without raising suspicions. But if he gets caught, it could mean his death.
Bartali takes the risk. Rolled up, he hides the passports and photos in his seat tube – and starts to cycle, driven by his moral compass: “As a devout Catholic, grandpa didn’t hesitate for a second to help people in need,” his oldest granddaughter told the “Spiegel”. Again and again he covers the distance. He is taking a big risk with that, one time a checkpoint becomes suspicious and wants to disassemble his bike – Bartali can talk him out of it by pointing out what a sensitive structure such a racing bike is and how long it takes to put it back together properly for him . Bartali narrowly escaped several exchanges of fire on his journeys.
However, Bartali does not limit himself to his role as a courier over thousands of kilometers, he also hid a Jewish family in the basement of the house in which he lives with his family. “He hid us even though he knew that the Germans would kill anyone who hid Jews,” says Giorgio Goldenberg, son of the Jewish family, in a documentary about Bartali. “He not only risked his life, but also that of his family.”
However, Bartali’s family knows little about his activities in the resistance. He only lets his wife know what is absolutely necessary – also for her own protection. And even after the war, the professional cyclist is extremely reluctant to talk about the role he played in rescuing Jews. “You do good things and you don’t talk about them,” he insists on his children and grandchildren. Instead, he caused a sensation again as a cyclist: although he was unable to compete in any races during his prime due to the war, he won the Tour de France again in 1948. His sporting rivalry with Fausto Coppi is legendary. His father wanted to be remembered for his sporting successes and didn’t see himself as a hero, says his son Andrea Bartali. Heroes are those who “have suffered in their soul, their heart, their mind, their heart because of their loved ones”.
It was only after his death – Bartali died of a heart attack in 2000 – that it became increasingly clear that he was much more than a successful cyclist. Detailed records of his courier trips can be found in the estate of another member of DELASEM. It is estimated that he saved up to 800 Jews from deportation. In 2013, Bartali was honored as “Righteous Among the Nations” at Jerusalem’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial. He himself would probably have been reluctant to receive this award.
Sources: BBC / “Spiegel” / “Tagesspiegel” / Deutschlandfunk / Yad Vashem
