Père Marie-Benoît and Jewish Rescue by Susan Zuccotti

Author:Susan Zuccotti [Zuccotti, Susan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Religion, Christianity, Catholic, History, Military, World War II
ISBN: 9780253008664
Google: HzlvaQAZk2MC
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 2013-06-04T16:05:04+00:00

NINE

With Stefan Schwamm in Rome

SECURING DOCUMENTS FOR JEWISH RESCUE

NOT LONG AFTER THE ROME ROUNDUP OF OCTOBER l6, 1943, German police launched their first raid on the Hotel Salus. Some forty Delasem protégés were residing at the Salus at that time, most without documents, along with many non-Jews. By sheer chance, Padre Benedetto was at the hotel when the Germans arrived. “Fortunately,” he recorded later, “in the back courtyard there was a wall that could be scaled by means of a ladder, and in just a few minutes everyone had cleared out. I stayed almost alone with the personnel of the hotel. After insisting with the [German] agents who searched the place several times, I was released after three hours.” By “insisting” he presumably meant he was vouching for the boarders who were “out” that day.1

Then on October 28 Settimio Sorani paid a near-fatal visit to Cyril Kotnik, a diplomat attached to the Yugoslavian delegation to the Holy See and a loyal friend of Delasem. Unknown to Sorani, Gestapo agents had arrested Kotnik the day before and were in the process of searching Kotnik's apartment when Sorani knocked on the door. Naturally Sorani was arrested and taken to Gestapo headquarters in the via Tasso. For ten terrifying days he was interrogated, beaten, and interrogated again. He stuck to his story. He had come to the building to deliver a message for a friend and had mistaken the entry and floor. He had knocked on the wrong door. He knew no one named Kotnik. His false documents apparently stood up under intense scrutiny, and he was not recognized as Jewish. The Germans finally accepted his story and released him on November 6.2 But while remaining director of Delasem in Rome, Sorani now had to be more careful than ever.

If Delasem's ever growing numbers of protégés were to survive, rescuers clearly had to meet three fundamental needs. As the raid on the Salus showed, lodging was the first priority, and the use of small hotels and boardinghouses was increasingly risky. Although those facilities continued to be used for want of a better option, Delasem leaders came to prefer Church institutions that were willing to accept Jews, as well as private apartments whose owners rented rooms without asking too many questions. Often those owners did not know that their new tenants were Jewish. With regard to lodging, Padre Benedetto was able to help significantly by contacting Church institutions.

But no lodging was possible without the resolution of the other two necessities: false documents and money. Even in Church institutions, but especially in hotels, boardinghouses, and apartments, refugees had to have identification documents and residence permits in case of police searches. They also needed ration books if they were to buy food. Money was required to buy food and pay rent or boarding fees. Even most Church institutions charged modest fees if their guests had the means, although only a few asked them to leave if they had no money. During the entire German occupation of

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