It is said that during the 1948 Tour de France race, when Italian cyclist Gino Bartelli rested at a hotel in Cannes in anticipation of a crucial mountain section, a famous politician from his homeland called him.
"You must win a section or two in a column," the man pleaded, explaining that otherwise, the tumultuous and troubled Italy after the assassination attempt on a revered communist leader, would degenerate into violence and bloodshed.
"I'll do more than that - I'll win the whole column," Bartley assured him.
Promised and fulfilled.
As it turns out decades later, preventing a civil war in his country was not the only lifesaver in the life of the renowned rider.
It was only after he died that word spread that during World War II Bartley had helped rescue Jews and partisans who desperately needed a false identity.
In order to survive in fascist Italy, and later under direct German occupation, they needed forged documents.
Without such certificates, it would not have been possible to stay in pensions, pass checkpoints on the streets or receive food stamps from the authorities.
Jews in Florence, Bartley's hometown, who approached to receive the food stamps in their true identity, were arrested on the spot.
The forged certificates gave a chance to live.
Without them this chance aspires to zero.
Gino Bartley.
"I will win the whole column" - promised and exists, Photo: AP
Fake certificates to live
After Bartley's death in 2000, a debate broke out over his participation in a network that arranged forged documentation for Jews and other persecuted people.
The difficulty stemmed from the fact that in his life he did not tell or write about his exploits in the war.
His son Andrea remembers that his father used to say that "the good things are done, not talked about."
Some of the other participants who were still alive mentioned him, others - no.
The decision was made in 2013, when Bartley was recognized by Yad Vashem as a Righteous Among the Nations.
Gino Bartley was the great star of bicycle racing in the mid-20th century.
When World War II broke out and the competitions ceased, he already had two wins at the Giro d'Italia and a victory at the Tour de France.
Above all, he was very well known in his country, and this was the basis of his part in an underground system that provided forged documents to Jews.
Preparing forged documents required several steps.
First, blank certificates had to be obtained.
In the next stage, they filled in details that were matched to the potential holder and stamped, and in the third stage, the future certificate holder had to be photographed, the photographs affixed to the certificates and passed on to the survivors.
At each stage, the certificates had to be moved from place to place, and the job endangered both the emissary and the other members of the underground.
Since the network, founded by Rabbi Natan Cassuto, included clergymen in the Tuscany region, they were sometimes the ones who moved the materials between hiding places, assuming priests would be examined with less severity.
At the same time, Bartley also emerged as a good candidate for the dangerous mission.
He used to go out for riding training out of town, and this could serve as a cover for the frequent trips between Florence and Assisi, where the forgery network hotline operated.
Gino Bartley.
Righteous Gentile,
Bartley hid the photographs and documents inside his bicycle frame, and thanks to his great publicity, he was in fact immune to questioning and testing.
The athletes in Italy of those days were likened to warriors and gained immense admiration.
No one thought of suspecting an idol like Gino Bartley.
At the request of the Archbishop
Some scholars are convinced that Bartley helped rescue hundreds of Jews.
Others pierce in more modest numbers.
Opinions on Bartley's motive for endangering himself and his family are also divided.
It is claimed that as a devout Catholic he was influenced by a personal request from Elia della Costa, the Archbishop of Florence, who gave the order to assist in rescuing Jews.
Della Costa, in addition to his high office in the ecclesiastical hierarchy, edited Bartley's marriage, and it is clear that his request had tremendous weight in the eyes of the rider.
Even after Yad Vashem's decision, the voices that questioned the truth of Bartley's role in rescuing Jews did not fade.
Andrea, Bartley's son, visiting Yad Vashem in 2013, Photo: AFP
Italian historian Michele French continues to argue that the story of the rider and the transfer of the certificates is nothing but an invention.
Bartley's fans, on the other hand, attribute another act of rescue to him, explaining that he hid the family of his Jewish friend, Giacomo Goldenberg, in one of his apartments in Florence.
80 years after the dramatic events, it is not easy to distinguish between truth and fiction.
However, the weight of the evidence gathered in favor of Bartley was decisive.
Shlomo Goldenberg-Paz, who was a child during the Holocaust, confirmed that his parents told him after the war that Bartley had helped them escape.
Additional evidence from World War II mentions Bartley as the one who brought the saving certificates to Jewish families.
It does not matter what the exact number of people who owe their lives to him - his heroism requires that the memory of the wondrous rider be preserved forever.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
