Gino Bartali

Bartali became a professional racer in 1935. He won his first Giro d'Italia the next year, in 1936. The Italian Cycling Federation then compelled him to compete in the Tour de France in order to increase Italy's cycling reputation abroad. Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini had risen to power in 1922 and had taken control of public and private institutions. Italian Fascists hoped that a victory in the Tour de France would demonstrate the superiority of the Fascism and the “Italian race.”

Bartali did, in fact, win the Tour de France in 1938. However, Bartali had no sympathies for the regime. He never dedicated his win to Italian Fascist leader Benito Mussolini, as tradition dictated. Consequently, he received no honors upon his return to Italy.

1938 also brought a dramatic change for Italian Jews as the Fascist Grand Council approved anti-Jewish measures based on Germany's Nuremberg Laws. These laws excluded Jews from most aspects of Italian life and would facilitate future deportations. They also marked the tightening of the alliance with Hitler's Germany.

On June 10, 1940, Italy declared war on France and Great Britain. In October, Bartali was called to active duty. Because of an irregular heartbeat, he was assigned to be an army messenger. Allowed to use his bicycle for his missions, Bartali was able to continue training and racing for the next three years.

The summer of 1943 was a pivotal moment for Italy. Mussolini was overthrown in July. In September, the new government signed an armistice with the Allies. Germany invaded the northern regions of the country, including Tuscany. With the German occupation, conditions for the Jewish population grew much worse.

Also in September 1943, Italian Cardinal Elia Dalla Costa (right above) asked to meet Bartali. Dalla Costa had been secretly aiding thousands of Jews seeking refuge from other European countries. The fugitives needed falsified identity cards. Dalla Costa shared his plan with Bartali. Under the cover of his long training rides, Bartali could carry counterfeit documents and photos in the hollow frame of his bike. The plan was a nearly perfect one as Bartali knew those roads well and his need to train provided an ideal alibi.

Despite the risks, Bartali accepted. For the following year, he rode while hiding the vital materials in the frame of his bicycle. Sometimes Bartali was accompanied by his training companions, who were unaware of his activities. When stopped at checkpoints, Bartali engaged the guards in conversation about cycling. He asked guards not to touch his bicycle, telling them that all the parts were adjusted in a special way to suit his racing style.

A Jew named Giulia Baquis recounted that during the German occupation she was in hiding with her family at the home of two sisters in Lido di Camaiore in Tuscany. One day a cyclist arrived at the door with a package and enquired about her family. The older sister was away, and the other feared that the stranger was a collaborator, and therefore denied any knowledge of Baquis’ family. The courier left without delivering the package. After liberation the resistance member who had arranged the hiding place for them told Baquis’ parents that the messenger had been Gino Bartali. Another witness, Renzo Ventura heard his mother, Marcella Frankenthal-Ventura, say that she and her parents and sister had received false papers that were brought to them by Bartali on behalf of the Dalla Costa network.

By coincidence, shortly after he started his underground activity, Bartali was asked to hide a Jewish family whom he knew well. Giorgio Goldenberg, his wife, and their son hid in Bartali's cellar until Florence was liberated.

As the war progressed and cycling races were cancelled, Bartali's cover began to appear less credible. In July 1944, Bartali was interrogated at Villa Triste (Sorrow House) in Florence, where local Fascist officials imprisoned and tortured their prisoners. Fortunately, one of Bartali's interrogators happened to be his one-time army commander, who convinced the other interrogators that Bartali was innocent of any charges.