Walter Giannini

Walter Giannini (born April 11, 1914 in Mainz ; † April 9, 2003 in Zollikon ) was an employee of the Children's Aid of the Swiss Red Cross (SRK) and in July 1943 he and his future wife Emma Giannini-Aeppli had two Belgian-Jewish girls from Helped the children's home in Faverges to escape across the Swiss border. On February 15, 2001, the couple received the honorary title Righteous Among the Nations at the Holocaust Remembrance Center Yad Vashem .

Life

The Giannini family originally comes from the upper Leventina ( TI ), but fled to Brussels and later to Mainz due to a famine. Walter Giannini was born on April 11, 1914, the middle son of five children. His mother Cäcilie Giannini was a pianist by profession, his father Paul Giannini worked as a businessman . At the age of 14, Walter was given a free position (see scholarship ) at the city music academy in Mainz because of his musical talent . As a secondary occupation, he also worked in the extras and in a movement choir of the Mainz city theater . In his youth, Walter Giannini was confronted with the decline of the Weimar Republic and the transition to National Socialist Germany . In this very formative time he was politicized and joined the Wandervögel . In order to rebel against the ideology of the Nazis, he became a member of the working class youth, attended communist meetings and supported the free religious movement and the Good Templars . He learned the planned language Esperanto .

In March 1931, the director of the music academy in Mainz emigrated to London and Walter lost his place at university. He had to reorient himself. Due to his interest in alternative agriculture, he worked in the fruit and horticultural settlement in Donzdorf . A year later he used his knowledge to look after fruit plantings in Mainz. With the seizure of power of Hitler, he began to take part in demonstrations to stick dissident posters and write newspaper articles. Because of an "insidious attack on the Reich government abroad" - Walter wrote an allegedly damaging economic article for a Swiss newspaper and was sentenced to prison. His father was able to get him out after three months with the help of a lawyer. Walter Giannini had never renounced his Swiss citizenship and therefore found refuge in Switzerland .

Walter found work on a farm in Maur am Greifensee . After the outbreak of World War II , Walter served in the Swiss Army . Because of insubordination , he was again sent to prison. Then Walter got a job as a tutor at the " Swiss Institute for Epileptics ". There he met his future wife Emma Giannini-Aeppli.

Together with his partner at the time, he decided to get involved with the SRK Children's Aid in France. In July 1943 Walter Giannini and Emma Aeppli helped the two girls Berthe Silber and Rosa Spiegel across the Swiss border. For his help in Faverges, Walter had to obtain a leave of absence.

Walter Giannini and Emma Giannini-Aeppli married on August 14, 1943. They had four children together. After the war, Walter Giannini rediscovered his passion for music. In 1945 he successfully completed his studies at the Conservatory of Music in Zurich. The recorder became his main subject. He became a music teacher at the conservatory, conducted choirs and played the French horn in various orchestras.

Walter Giannini was a co-founder of the Swiss Working Group for Youth Music and Music Education. Until his retirement he took on numerous organizational activities. He remained loyal to a church choir and his recorder choir long after his retirement. In 1987 his wife Emma Giannini-Aeppli died.

It was not until February 15, 2001, that Walter Giannini and Emma Giannini-Aeppli were honored for saving two Jewish children.

On April 9, 2003, Walter died of a heart attack.

The rescue

In July 1943 Berthe Silber and Rose Spiegel - they were the last Jewish children in the children's home in Faverges - left the children's home, assuming they would go to another children's home. Walter Giannini and the pregnant Emma Giannini-Aeppli - she wanted to give birth to her child in Switzerland - accompanied the two girls. They first traveled by bus to Annecy , where they then took the train to Annemasse . They approached the Swiss border near Geneva on foot . An Italian border guard, who became aware of the refugees, allowed the four to continue their journey after a brief exchange with Walter Giannini. They followed the border fence until Walter Giannini bent down and lifted a wire so the two girls could crawl through. Walter Giannini and Emma Giannini-Aeppli told the girls to run towards a nearby hill. They promised Berthe Silber and Rose Spiegel to pick them up there.

Walter and Emma Giannini deliberately had no money with them in order to be able to credibly pretend in an emergency that they were on a day trip with their supposed two children. Emma's father therefore had to send money to Geneva so that they could continue their journey to Zurich . They took the train to Zollikon in the canton of Zurich , where Emma's cousin, Ernst Ulrich, owned the restaurant and the Gasthaus zur Höhe. Berthe Silber and Rose Spiegel were allowed to stay there for a few days.

After a few days, Berthe Silber and Rose Spiegel continued their journey to Basel , where they were taken in by the parents of Mrs. Jecklin, the then director of the children's home in Faverges. After three weeks they were sent to a Jewish orphanage in Basel.

Emma Aeppli gave birth to a child shortly after the rescue operation. It died in childbed .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Albrecht Christian: I was born to transform myself through learning. For Walter Giannini's 80th birthday . Ed .: Swiss Working Group for Youth Music and Music Education. March 1994, p. 16 .
2. ↑ Albrecht Christian: I was born to transform myself through learning. For Walter Giannini's 80th birthday. Ed .: Swiss Working Group for Youth Music and Music Education. March 1994, p. 18 .
3. ↑ Lhoumeau: Walter Giannini. Retrieved November 8, 2019 . 
4. ↑ Five medals awarded for saving Jews. swissinfo.ch, accessed on November 10, 2019 . 
5. ↑ ^{a b} AfZ Archive for Contemporary History. Retrieved November 8, 2019 .