Researchers have discovered records of the people including many Jews who found shelter from Nazi-Fascist persecution in Catholic institutions in the Italian capital during World War II.
The documentation, found in the archives of the Pontifical Biblical Institute in Rome, lists more than 4300 people who hid in the properties of 100 women’s and 55 men’s religious orders, of whom 3600 are identified by name.
A comparison with documents kept in the archives of the Jewish Community of Rome confirms that about 3200 of them were in fact Jewish.
Of the latter it is known where they were hidden and, in certain circumstances, where they lived before the persecution.
“The documentation thus significantly increases the information on the history of the rescue of Jews in the context of the Catholic institutions of Rome,” said a joint statement from the Pontifical Biblical Institute, Yad Vashem Holocaust Remembrance Centre in Jerusalem and Rome’s Jewish Community.
The names of the people who found shelter are not being released for reasons of privacy, the statement added.
Rome was occupied by the Nazis for nine months, from September 10, 1943 until liberation by Allied forces on June 4, 1944.
During that period, nearly 2000 Jews, including hundreds of children and adolescents, were deported and murdered from a community of between 10,000 and 15,000 people.
Article appeared in Il Globo (ANSA).