Moral Choice: Part 1 from "My Italian Secret"
Transcript
Speaker 3
In 1937, Gino Bartali wins the Giro D’talia for the second straight year and secures his place as Europe's biggest sports idol. Benito Mussolini's Fascist party has ruled Italy with intimidation and violence for 15 years.
And he will soon lead his country into war. Before it is over, Gino Bartali, like every Italian, will face a terrible moral choice.
Speaker 1
These are tough times. Most people struggle just to survive. It's a world where arrogance rules. Some have power, some don't. The life can hang by a thread. It's a world where you must do good. But don't talk about it.
Speaker 2
Gino Bartali was risking his life all during the war. In my opinion, he is a hero.
Speaker 5
Who were so many people all over Italy who kept our secret and were involved in our rescue? Lots of brave Italians risked their lives. I've always wanted my grandson to know what they did.
Speaker 3
By 1938, with war looming in Europe, Italy is one of the only safe havens for Jews and other refugees fleeing Nazi persecution.
Speaker 5
My mother was pregnant with me. She witnessed Kristallnacht and decided it was time to leave Germany. Ten days after her arrival in Milano, I was born. We were living in Milan for 2 1/2 years when we were sent to Fair Monte. I was three years old, but in my memory I never experienced a bad feeling about the place. It's a very strange feeling. To be coming back here.
Speaker 6
I really now thought can I do this trip? And then I decided it has to be done. I did say thank you many times. But it's never enough. When my family came from Germany in 35, I didn't feel Jewish. I felt Italian. I joined the fascist party. I marched every Saturday, and I was very happy.
Speaker 7
My mother was a Catholic, but my father's family was Jewish. They had been in Italy for many generations, well integrated into Italian society. In fact, my aunt was called Italia. They were very accomplished, well educated. My father studied chemistry and physics and then very young. He was given the directorship of Big Factory in Padua. My father and mother were a very handsome couple and young, and of course they moved into society in Padua, but little by little and the society, let's say, moved away from them.
Speaker 3
Soon after Adolf Hitler visits Rome in 1938 with his plan for a racially pure homeland already underway in Germany. Il Dulce decides to impose a new racial policy in Italy. Laws for the protection of the race.
Speaker 2
Septembre de Mille Novecento, Toronto libre. When I went to school that day, I saw my teacher telling the principal that I am a Jew. This child is a Jew. And then the the principal came to meet together with the policeman and they told me that from that moment I am expelled from the school and I have to go home. I started to cry. Because I couldn't understand why I cannot go to my school.
Speaker 7
Papa lost his job and it began to be more and more difficult. What was terrible was the silence. This racial laws were accepted, praised and suddenly the Jew was really a dirty human being.
Speaker 1
All this talk about Homeland is just propaganda. The world is the homeland of all human beings. The words of our priests made a big impression on me. Always follow the teachings of Jesus. Do good unto others.
Speaker 1
One day in Florence, the president of the Cyclist Union came running up. It was the last day to qualify for the Tour de France, and he had a telegram from the Fascist party secretary ordering me to leave at once.
Speaker 3
Mussolini has a plan to show off Italy's Arian superiority on the world stage. A bodily triumph in the tour will prove that Italians, too, belonged to the master race.
Speaker 4
Very important to France at the train.
Speaker 3
On July 31st, headlines about Bartoli's lead appeared next to a story, with the latest on Italy's new policy. Jews do not belong to the Italian race. The next day, Bartley wind stood tours, crucial Alpine stage and holds on to the lead all the way to Paris. Italian fascists take credit calling him their Aryan champion. Bartley rejects the party’s patronage, insulting, Il Dulce.
Speaker 1
The party has started a campaign against me, accusing me of lack of patriotism. But I'm not the type to back down.
Speaker 3
It's not the last time partially will defy the fascists.