International Holocaust Remembrance Day 2020
Monday, January 27th at 6pm
Italian Cultural Institute – 500 N Michigan Ave, Suite 1450
On the Occasion of the 2020 International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the Consulate General of Italy in Chicago, the Italian Cultural Institute of Chicago, the Simon Wiesenthal Center – Chicago, and The American Jewish Committee are pleased to invite you to a special commemoration:
Gino Bartali: The Invisible Hero, featuring guest speaker Gioia Bartali, the grand-daughter of Gino Bartali, three-time Giro champion, who helped save the lives of 800 Jews during the Holocaust
The documentary My Italian Secret: The Forgotten Heroes by Oren Jacoby (2015, 90 minutes) will be screened.
Would you risk your life to save a stranger? My Italian Secret tells the story of cycling idol Gino Bartali, Dr. Giovanni Borromeo, and other courageous Italians who carried out ingenious schemes to rescue Jews, partisans, and refugees from
Nazi-occupied Italy. Celebrated as a Tour De France champion, Gino Bartali’s most daring triumph came when he risked his life to save Italian Jews by smuggling fake identification documents in the frame of his bicycle. Dr. Borromeo invented a fictitious disease to scare the SS away from the hospital where he was hiding Jews. These men, and the networks in which they worked, reflect the efforts of thousands of Italians who risked their lives to save others. As an entire continent was engulfed in genocide, more than 80 percent of Italy’s Jews survived. In My Italian Secret, Oscar®-nominated director Oren Jacoby reveals the dramatic stories of a secret underground that has remained largely unknown until now.
Free and open to the public.
RSVP at https://holocaustremembranceday2020.eventbrite.com