I read the same story about Bartali years ago, but can't remember where. I saw a PBS TV special a while back stating that most Italians, including many government officials, never had any real enthusiam for Hitler's anti-Jewish campaign. They claimed Italian officials routinely evaded, circumvented and ignored their Nazi allies' policy of racial persecution. Thus, Bartali could have covertly aided the Jews as claimed without in any way having opposed Italian popular opinion.
Regards,
Jerry Moos
Dave Feldman wrote:
> >From other things printed about Bartali this doesn't surprise me. I'm
> Jewish and would be especially interested to hear the story confirmed--it
> seemed like Italy was one of the less heinous countries during the Holocaust
> despite Mussolini.
> David Feldman
> ----------
> >From: Cino1947@aol.com
> >To: moos@penn.com, swampmtn@siscom.net
> >Cc: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
> >Subject: Re: [Classicrendezvous] Gino Bartali, Humanitarian; Was:Le Tour history
> >Date: Fri, Oct 27, 2000, 2:07 PM
> >
>
> >Someone told me that in a recent issue of a cycling magazine there was an
> >article or letter describing how Gino Bartali saved some Jewish lives during
> >World War II by smuggling illegal documents in the seatube of his bike. Does
> >anyone recall seeing this?
> >Josh Berger
> >In a message dated 10/27/00 9:07:49 AM Eastern Daylight Time, moos@penn.com
> >writes:
> >
> ><< And Gino Bartali won in 1938 and 1948, his prime years stolen by WWII.
> >I've
> > often thought that if not for the war, Bartali would have won 5 or 6 times
> >and
> > would be ranked up there with Merckx, Coppi, Anquetil, and Hinault, where he
> > belongs. I thought it was outrageous the low ranking Cycle Sport gave
> >Bartali
> > a while back in their "all-time greats" issue.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Jerry Moos >>