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PAGE B2 I Friday, October 11, 2013SPORTS HISTORY- SPORTSWICyclist Gino Bartali honoredAP SPORTS WRITERROME • Gino Bartali rarely spoke about this for all these years.During World War II, the champion cyclist— winner of the 1938 and 1948 Tour de France— helped rescue Jews in his native Italy by hiding forged documents and papers in the tubes and seat of his bike.Bartali died in 2000. Now’, son Andrea Bartali is leading an effort to gain recognition for w’hat his father did.“It’s very moving for me to be here now- to talk about my father, a man who covered (nearly 500,000 miles) with his bicycle, many of which during the war, to help people in need and. above all, Jews,” Andrea Bartali told The Associated Press.On Thursday, Gino Bartali was honored at the Jerusalem Holocaust memorial Yad Vashem. He was inducted into thenetwork in his hometown of Florence and the surrounding area.“Why did he do it? Andrea Bartali said. “He was a great sportsman and his idea w’as that sport, and mainly cycling, if it’s not a life lesson and solidarity, then it is totally useless.Two Holocaust survivors Bartali helped, Giulia Baquis and Giorgio Goldenberg, attended Thursday’s ceremony. The honor recognizes non-Jew's who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.“I considered him a hero,” Baquis said. “I’ve always considered him a hero, but I never saw him. I only saw him on TV sometimes. I never met him in person. I never talked to him. But in my heart he was a hero for me.’’The Jewish-Christian rescue netu-ork in Florence was led by Rabbi Nathan Cassuto and Cardinal Elia Angeloarrested by the Germans, deported and sent to his death, the network continued functioning.Goldenberg was a child when his entire family was hidden by Bartali, who was a friend of his father’s.“I’m alive because Bartali hid us in a cellar, the 81-year-old Goldenberg, who now lives in Israel, told the Italian Jewish monthly Pagine Ebraiche.Oscar-nominated director Oren Jacoby just finished editing a film called “Don’t Talk About It: Italy’s Secret Heroes.” It’s a documentary that tells the story of Bartali and other Italians who helped Jews during the Holocaust.“Of course, there were bad stories, and we show that there were Italians who were sent to Auschwitz and there were times when there were Italians who didn’t do the right thing, Jacoby said. But there were so many
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Barstow Desert Dispatch
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Fri, Oct 11, 2013
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