Odoardo Focherini

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Odoardo Focherini, July 1930

Odoardo Focherini (born June 6, 1907 in Carpi ; † December 27, 1944 in the Hersbruck subcamp ) was an Italian insurance employee , publicist , functionary of Catholic Action and opponent of National Socialism . He helped more than a hundred Jews to flee the German-occupied zone of Italy, was arrested by the Nazi regime, deported and died in the Hersbruck subcamp.

In 1969 he was recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations . In the Roman Catholic Church he is venerated as a blessed .

life and work

Focherinis family is originally from the Trentino . His father Tobia Focherini ran a hardware store in Carpi. His mother Maria Bertacchini died in 1909, his father then married Teresa Merighi. Focherini had three siblings.

Odoardo Focherini was involved in the lay movement of Catholic Action. In 1924 he founded the youth magazine L'Aspirante and in 1928 became president of the Catholic Association of Young Men. On July 9, 1930, Focherini married Maria Marchesi (1909–1989), with whom he had seven children. From 1934 he worked for the Catholic insurance company Società Cattolica di Assicurazione . He headed the Modena branch and later became an inspector in several northern Italian cities. In addition to his professional activity, he continued to work in numerous Catholic lay organizations and also wrote articles for the Osservatore Romano . In 1936 Focherini became President of the Catholic Action in the Diocese of Carpi ; In 1937 he received the Knight's Cross of the Papal New Year's Eve .

In 1939 he was appointed managing director of the Catholic daily L'Avvenire d'Italia , based in Bologna. One of his decisions there was to hire Giacomo Lampronti, a Jew who had lost his previous position because of race laws. Lampronti thanked Focherini posthumously in 1948 with his memoirs Mio fratello Odoardo ("My brother Odoardo").

During the Second World War , Odoardo Focherini and his wife organized a so-called Postazione casalinga ("housewives' ward "), a network in cooperation with the Red Cross and the Holy See that helped families to maintain contact with the soldiers at the front. When Jewish refugees from Poland were sent to Focherini in 1942, he helped them to leave for Spain through his good contacts with the Bishop of Genoa .

  • In Mirandola, 1929
  • Wedding, 1930
  • Family, 1935
  • In Bologna, 1942

Italy's exit from the war and the armistice of Cassibile in September 1943 led to the occupation of all of Northern Italy by the German Nazi regime and the establishment of the puppet government with Benito Mussolini, the Repubblica Sociale Italiana . All Jews who were under the control of the National Socialists were thus endangered. Despite the fact that Focherini knew that anyone who hid Jews in this situation or helped them to emigrate was endangering themselves, he quickly built a network with the knowledge of his wife that enabled Jews to escape to the safe south of Italy. He also took care of obtaining forged documents. This saved the lives of at least 105 people. His helpers included clergy and lay people, whose secrecy he could be sure of. One of them was the priest Dante Sala (1905-1982).

On March 11, 1944, Focherini was caught by fascists in the Ramazzini Hospital in Carpi after he had given Enrico Donati forged papers. Donati was the last Jew whose life Odoardo Focherini was able to save. He was arrested and taken to Modena Police Headquarters. Eventually he was taken to the San Giovanni del Monte prison in Bologna. He stayed there until July 5, 1944. He was then deported to the Fossoli camp and then to the Bolzano labor camp . On September 7, Focherini was deported to the Flossenbürg concentration camp and finally to its subcamp in Hersbruck , where he died on December 27, 1944, presumably as a result of blood poisoning .

Odoardo Focherini was imprisoned for nine and a half months and during this time he met many fellow inmates, to whom he was a support, even when he was already very physically weak. Some inmates said that because of his encouragement, they could change and save their lives. The letters he sent to family and friends are impressive. When he was too weak to write, this task was taken over by his friend Teresio Olivelli , whose life he had saved in Fossoli. Olivelli stood by him until the end.

Letters from captivity

Odoardo Focherini left 166 letters which he sent to his wife, parents, friends and his newspaper through public and secret channels. The letters testify, among other things, to the deep love for his wife and the constant concern for the children he had left behind in uncertain and difficult times.

“I declare that I will die in the purest faith of the Roman Catholic Church and in full submission to the will of God. I offer my life as a burnt offering for my diocese, for L'Avvenire d'Italia and for the return of peace to the world. Please tell my wife that I have always remained loyal to her, always thought of her and always loved her dearly. "

Adoration

The Jewish religious community in Italy awarded Odoardo Focherini the posthumous gold medal for special merits in 1955. In 1969 he and Dante Sala were recognized by Yad Vashem as Righteous Among the Nations . In the Museo Monumento al deportato of Carpi a quote Focherinis is engraved in a prominent place. A memorial plaque was placed on the house where he was born, also in Carpi. In a church in Hersbruck he is remembered with a picture and a memorial sheet. On April 16, 2007, Italy posthumously awarded Odoardo Focherini the Medaglia d'oro al valor civile .

In Carpi, Mirandola , San Possidonio and Formigine streets were named after Odoardo Focherini, in Rumo (Val di Non, TN) a primary school and in Carpi also a secondary school. At the church on the summit of Monte Vioz , he is commemorated with a plaque on the outer wall and a picture in the chapel. Relics from his clothing were given to each parish in the Diocese of Carpi and the parish of Celentino. On his 100th birthday in 2007, he was commemorated with a solemn service in Carpi Cathedral .

  • Memorial plaque on the house where he was born in Carpi
  • Devotional image of the Blessed in St. Mary's Assumption in Hersbruck
  • Inscription at the deportee museum in Carpi
  • Gold medal of merit with certificate from the Italian Ministry of the Interior

beatification

The beatification process was opened on February 12, 1996 with the nihil obstat from Rome and concluded at diocesan level on June 5, 1998, after which the files were forwarded to Rome. The Italian website Santi e beati noted that it took the Roman Catholic Church a little longer to discover that its member Focherini died in odium fidei (that is, out of hatred of the faith). In 2003 Focherini was awarded the Positio super martyrio , the suffering of martyrdom . On April 3, 2012, the Congregation for the Causes of Saints completed the process; on May 10, 2012, Pope Benedict XVI. the certificate. The beatification took place after the beginning of the pontificate of Francis on June 15, 2013 on the Piazza Martiri in front of the Cathedral of Carpi by Cardinal Angelo Amato , the prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints. Odoardo Focherini's day of remembrance in the liturgy is June 6th .

Because of the beatification of Giuseppe Toniolo in the previous year, Focherini's elevation in honor of the altars was also seen as an award of the Catholic action in which the two blessed were involved.

Biography texts

Books
  • Giacomo Lampronti: Mio fratello Odoardo . Bologna: Tipografia de L'avvenire d'Italia 1948, 151 pages
Articles, summaries

Web links

Commons : Odoardo Focherini  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ http://www.storiamemoria.it/sites/default/files/e05_giusti-nazioni_focherini-vita.pdf
  2. ↑ In another rendering of his last will it says at this point: "[...] for the Pope and for the return of peace [...]" [1]
  3. ↑ Una vita tra Resistenza e Carità , l'informatore, February 1, 2018 (Italian), accessed on July 25, 2018
  4. ^ QG Wiesner, A good friend ... , Hersbrucker Zeitung of December 3, 2012, p. 5
personal data
SURNAME Focherini, Odoardo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Italian insurance employee, publicist, Righteous Among the Nations, Blessed of the Roman Catholic Church
DATE OF BIRTH June 6, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Carpi
DATE OF DEATH December 27, 1944
Place of death Hersbruck