Angelo Donati

Angelo's father, Salvatore, was a merchant; among his seven brothers, Lazzaro [it] was a banker, Mandolino manager of Conceria Pellami, Amedeo president of Modena Accountants, Federico a lawyer, Benvenuto a professor of law philosophy, Nino an industrialist of straw hats in Florence.

Among his uncles Lazzaro [it] was a banker and from 1911 to 1932 member of the executive board of Cassa di Risparmio delle Provincie Lombarde, Augusto [it] was a lawyer and president of Pio Albergo Trivulzio and the orphanage of Martinitt and Stelline from 1900 to his sudden death in 1903.

From 1925 to 1932 he was general Consul of the Republic of San Marino, from 1932 to 1939 he was president of the Italian Chamber of Commerce in Paris, a duty he had to leave for the fascist racial laws against the Jews.

The protests of the German authorities in Rome forced Benito Mussolini to create a Crown Office of Racial Police in Nice, assigned to Inspector Guido Lospinoso.

At the beginning of 1943 Donati prepared an ambitious plan to transfer thousands of Jews from southern France to Palestine with the support of the Italian, Vatican, British and American authorities.

He talked with the British and American ambassadors to the Vatican, Osborne and Titman, in August and was aided by the prudent and strenuous work of the French Capuchin Père Marie-Benoît who was connected to the Italian Jewish relief organization DELASEM.

From Montreux, where he lived, Donati tried to find out what happened to the deported Jews putting pressure on the International Red Cross and meeting in Bern with the Apostolic Nuncio and British, American and Italian diplomats.

Thanks to the good relations with the Apostolic Nuncio in Paris Angelo Roncalli (afterwards Pope John XXIII) Donati helped in 1953 to resolve the Finaly Affair involving two Jewish children who had been saved from deportation by Catholic nuns who didn't want to give them back to their uncles after the war because they had been baptized.

The celebrations started in the Synagogue and finished with the unveiling of a commemorative plaque on the Promenade des Anglais at the corner with Rue Cronstadt, in front of Hôtel Negresco.