Assisi Network

Holocaust historian Martin Gilbert credits the Assisi Network, established by Bishop Giuseppe Placido Nicolini and Father Rufino Nicacci, with saving 300 Jews.

Respect for Jewish religious practices saw Yom Kippur celebrated at Assisi in 1943, with nuns preparing the meal to end the fast.

[4] The activities of the network were the subject of a 1978 book, The Assisi Underground by Alexander Ramati, and a 1985 film starring Ben Cross and James Mason as Bishop Nicolini.

Brunacci owned a huge library where he taught Latin to several people, including Mira Baruch, that enabled her to resume her studies after the war.

[3] Testimony of Father Aldo Brunacci is available here[5] The actions of Pope Pius XII, also known as Eugenio Pacelli (1876-1958), during the Holocaust remain highly controversial.

Between 1940 and 1943, Pope Pius was confronted with demands to denounce the Nazi violence from individuals including: Chief Rabbi of Palestine, Isaac Herzog; Cardinal Theodor Innitzer of Vienna; Assistant Chief of the U.S. delegation to the Vatican, Harold Tittman; Ukrainian Metropolitan Andrej Septyckyj; Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini, Wladislaw Raczkiewicz, president of the Polish government-in-exile; and Bishop Preysing of Berlin.

At that time, Pope Pius began encouraging German and Hungarian bishops to speak out against the massacre of the Jews.

Assisi Cathedral . The churches, monasteries and convents of Assisi served as a safe haven for several hundred Jews during the German occupation.
Assisi is home to Francesco di Bernardone (St. Francis of Assisi) who was the founder of the Roman Catholics' Franciscan and St. Clare Orders.