Pierre-Marie Benoît
Father Pierre-Marie Benoît was a French national who until 1940 lived in
the Capuchin monastery in Rome. When war between France and Italy was
clearly inevitable, he returned to his homeland and moved into the
Capuchin monastery in Marseilles. The Jewish laws enacted by the Vichy
government set in motion a tumultuous and active chapter in Father
Benoît's life. Out of a profound commitment to humanitarian values,
Father Benoît pledged himself to protecting Jewish refugees.
Utilizing his ties with passeurs (border guides), the French
underground, and other religious organizations-Protestant, Greek
Orthodox, and Jewish-Father Benoît procured false papers and hiding
places and smuggled some refugees into Spain or Switzerland. His
reputation as a man who spared no effort to save Jews spread far and
wide. The waiting room in his monastery teemed with people at all times,
and the printing press in the monastery's basement printed thousands of
false baptismal certificates for distribution to Jews.
When, in November 1942, southern France was occupied and the Swiss and
Spanish borders became harder to cross, Father Benoît began to organize
the transfer of Jews to the Italian occupation zone. He met in Nice with
Guido Lospinoso, the Italian commissioner of Jewish affairs, whom
Mussolini had sent at the Germans' insistence. Father Benoît persuaded
Lospinoso to refrain from action against the 30,000 Jews who lived in
Nice and the vicinity (the original purpose of his trip).
In April 1943, he met with Pope Pius XII and presented a plan to
transfer Jews in Nice to North Africa via Italy. This plan was foiled
when the Germans occupied northern Italy and the Italian-occupied zone
of France. When the Gestapo discovered Father Benoît's activities, he
was forced to move to Rome.
Although he himself was now a refugee, he persevered in his rescue
efforts with even greater fervor. Father Benoît was elected to the board
of Delasem (Delegazione Assistenza Emigranti Ebrei), the main
Jewish welfare organization in Italy and when the Jewish president was
arrested, Father Benoît was named the acting president. The
organization's meetings were held at the Capuchin college in Rome.
Father Benoît contacted the Swiss, Romanian, Hungarian, and Spanish
embassies, and obtained important asylum documents which enabled Jews to
circulate freely under false names. Father Benoît also extracted
numerous ration cards from the police on the pretext that they were
meant for non-Jewish refugees.
Very many Jews owe their lives to Father Benoît and regard him as the
man who saved them from the crematoria. When Rome was liberated in June
1944, the Jewish community held an official synagogue ceremony in honor
of Father Benoît and showered him with praise. Years later, U. S.
President Lyndon Johnson delivered a moving speech in which he said that
Father Benoît's wonderful actions should inspire the American people in
the protection and preservation of the rights of citizens, irrespective
of race, color or religion.
On April 26, 1966, Yad Vashem recognized Father Pierre-Marie Benoît as Righteous among the Nations.
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