Raimondo Viale
Encyclopedia
"... resistance is a mature man's dowry, the man who rejects everything that is unjust, and rebels, rebels ... The Bible is full of resistance. Resistance is a sacred thing, is part of life that preserves life, and rejects everything that is contrary to human dignity and life itself " – The Just Priest'
Don
Don (honorific)
Don, from Latin dominus, is an honorific in Spanish , Portuguese , and Italian . The female equivalent is Doña , Dona , and Donna , abbreviated "Dª" or simply "D."-Usage:...
Raimondo Viale ( Limone Piemonte , 1907 – 25 September 1984) was an Italian Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priest, whose name is entered among the Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous Among the Nations
Righteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
at Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem
Yad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
for his work on behalf of the Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
during the Holocaust.
Biography
Raimondo Viale was born in 1907 in Limone PiemonteLimone Piemonte
Limone Piemonte is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 100 km south of Turin and about 20 km south of Cuneo, on the border with France...
province of Cuneo
Cuneo
Cuneo is a city and comune in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the third largest of Italy’s provinces by area...
. After being ordained a priest, he was assigned to curate
Curate
A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...
in the parish of Borgo San Dalmazzo
Borgo San Dalmazzo
Borgo San Dalmazzo is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 80 km south of Turin and about 8 km southwest of Cuneo...
. In the 1930s, his cultural and social commitments lead him into conflict with the fascist authorities
National Fascist Party
The National Fascist Party was an Italian political party, created by Benito Mussolini as the political expression of fascism...
. Already a victim of intimidation and beatings, in 1940 Viale was arrested and convicted for having delivered a homily against the entrance into the war against France. He spent 15 months in confinement at Agnone
Agnone
Agnone is a city and comune in the province of Isernia, in the Molise region of southern Italy. Agnone is known for the manufacturing of bells by the Marinelli Bell Foundry. It is 22 miles northwest of Campobasso. The city of Agnone is complemented with other populated centers like Fontesambuco,...
in Molise
Molise
Molise is a region of Southern Italy, the second smallest of the regions. It was formerly part of the region of Abruzzi e Molise and now a separate entity...
before he returned to Borgo San Dalmazzo.
Aid to Jews
On 18 September 1943 he witnessed the arrival of a thousand Jewish refugees from neighboring FranceFrance
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
through the Alps
Alps
The Alps is one of the great mountain range systems of Europe, stretching from Austria and Slovenia in the east through Italy, Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Germany to France in the west....
. Of the refugees, 349 of them were captured by the German military authorities at Valdieri
Valdieri
Valdieri is a comune in the Province of Cuneo in the Italian region Piedmont, located about 90 km southwest of Turin and about 15 km southwest of Cuneo, on the border with France...
, and were confined in a former barracks in Borgo San Dalmazzo. On the morning of 21 November 1943 the 349 prisoners begin their journey to Auschwitz (only 9 of them survived). In close touch with Don Francesco Repetto
Francesco Repetto
Monsignor Francesco Repetto was an Italian priest and librarian. He is honored by Jews as a Righteous Among the Nations for his leading role in the clandestine DELASEM organization, which contributed to the saving of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust in Italy during the German occupation.-...
and DELASEM
DELASEM
Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants or DELASEM, was a Jewish resistance organization that worked in Italy between 1939 and 1947...
(Delegazione Assistenza Emigranti Ebrei - "Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants") of Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, Don Viale then dedicated his life to the hundreds of Jews scattered, hiding in the valleys of Cuneo
Cuneo
Cuneo is a city and comune in Piedmont, Northern Italy, the capital of the province of Cuneo, the third largest of Italy’s provinces by area...
in mountain huts, materially and emotionally assisting them. Don Viale helped Jews reach Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
where Don Repetto was able to help them escape to Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
.
Acknowledgments
- A square is named after him at Borgo San Dalmazzo.
- On 7 August 2000 he received the honor Righteous Among the NationsRighteous Among the NationsRighteous among the Nations of the world's nations"), also translated as Righteous Gentiles is an honorific used by the State of Israel to describe non-Jews who risked their lives during the Holocaust to save Jews from extermination by the Nazis....
from the Yad VashemYad VashemYad Vashem is Israel's official memorial to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust, established in 1953 through the Yad Vashem Law passed by the Knesset, Israel's parliament....
Institute in Jerusalem. - He was featured as the protagonistProtagonistA protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
in Nuto RevelliNuto RevelliNuto Revelli was an Italian essayist.-Life:Revelli was a freshly commissioned second lieutenant when, on 21 July 1942, he left Italy on one of the two hundred troop trains sent to the Eastern Front by Mussolini in an attempt to ensure that fascist Italy would share in what, at the time, with the...
’s book, “The Just Priest.”