Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
30 by 1912 (women would have to wait until 1945). But as soon as the government prom-
ised the Socialists to fund an old-age pension scheme, it reneged, and opted to invade
Tunisia instead.
Italy got more war than it had budgeted for when WWI broke out in 1914. A prominent
young Socialist firebrand named Benito Mussolini (1883-1945) led the call for Italy to in-
tervene in support of the Allies, though most Socialists were opposed to such an action.
As a result, Mussolini was expelled from the Socialist Party and went on to join the Italian
army. After being injured and discharged, he formed the Italian Combat Squad in 1919,
the forerunner of the National Fascist Party.
THE BIKER, THE FRIAR & THE ACCOUNTANT
Unbelievable as it may sound, this trio became heroes of the Italian Resistance during WWII. Giorgio
Nissim was a Jewish accountant in Pisa who belonged to a secret Tuscan Resistance group that helped
Jewish Italians escape from fascist Italy. The network was discovered by the Fascists, and everyone
involved was sent to concentration camps, except for Giorgio, who remained undetected.
It seemed nowhere was safe for Jewish refugees - until Franciscan friar Rufino Niccacci helped or-
ganise the Assisi Underground, which hid hundreds of Jewish refugees from all over Italy in convents
and monasteries across Umbria in 1943 and 1944. In Assisi, nuns who'd never met Jewish people be-
fore learned to cook kosher meals for their guests, and locals risked their lives to provide shelter to
total strangers.
The next problem was getting forged travel documents to the refugees, and quick. Enter Gino
Bartali, world-famous Tuscan cyclist, Tour de France winner and three-time champion of the Giro
d'Italia. After his death in 2003, documents revealed that during his 'training rides' during the war
years, Bartali had carried Resistance intelligence and falsified documents that were used to transport
Jewish refugees to safe locations. Suspected of involvement, Bartali was once interrogated at the
dreaded Villa Triste in Florence, where political prisoners were held and tortured - but he revealed
nothing. Until his death he refused to discuss his efforts to save Jewish refugees, even with his chil-
dren, saying, 'One does these things, and then that's that.'
