Ancona, "Memorial Day", in memory of Gino Bartali, the cycling champion who saved many lives

Ancona, "Memorial Day", in memory of Gino Bartali, the cycling champion who saved many lives

On the occasion of Remembrance Day, the Panathlon Club of Ancona organizes with the patronage of the Municipality of Ancona and the Jewish Community of the Marche a public meeting, open to citizens, entitled “The champion hero: Gino Bartali. The story of a Righteous". Guest of the evening, which will be held on January 24th at the Hotel Concorde in Aspio Terme at 19 pm, Bartali's niece, Gioia, who has long been involved in perpetuating the memory, sporting and human, of my grandfather.

The popular professional cyclist - one of the greatest Italian and world cyclists of all time, and great opponent of Fausto coppi– has been remembered for some years for his activity on behalf of Jews during the Second World War for which it was declared in 2013 Just among the nations. It was only after his death that the activity he carried out during the world war came to light: from various testimonies it was learned that in the barrel of his bicycle, with which he traveled the route from Florence to Assisi for training, he hid false documents from destined for the Jews to reconstitute a new identity and escape from Italy. In April 2006 the President of the Republic Carlo Azeglio Ciampi delivered to Bartali's widow, Adriana, the gold medal for civil valor (posthumously) to the late champion for having helped and saved many Jews during the second World War. It later became known that Bartali, during the last months of the German occupation, gave hospitality to the Goldenberg family of Istrian Jews in a cellar he owned. On 7 July 2013 Bartali - it was said - was declared Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashe and on 2 May 2018 he was awarded posthumous honorary citizenship of Israel in a ceremony, in the presence of his niece Gioia Bartali. The journalist Roberto Senigalliesi and Daniele Tagliacozzo-Jewish Community will moderate the meeting.