MEMORY – Gina Cipolli, the courage of a Righteous

Eighty years after WWII, it is increasingly rare for a living person to be recognized as a Righteous among Nations. Yet, the honor – bestowed by Yad Vashem, the Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, to recognize those who took great risks to save Jews during the Shoah – has finally reached Gina Cipolli at the age of 96. She was just over 13 years old when she and her family, helped some Jews being hunted by Nazi fascists in the countryside of Cascina (province of Pisa, Tuscany). Among those rescued was a young Guido Guastalla, who would later become a publisher and art dealer. 

It was Guastalla who initiated the procedure to confer the title of “Righteous” on Gina Cipolli. It all began in 2020, on Holocaust Remembrance Day, when the former mayor of Cascina, Susanna Ceccardi, organized the first meeting between the saved and the rescued after the Second World War. “My brother and I, along with our mother and grandmother, were welcomed into the Cipollis’ home,” Guastalla recalled at the time. “They risked their lives to help us: if anyone had found out, they would have been killed or deported.” 

The Yad Vashem recognition came full circle. “I have waited for this with impatience,” the publisher told Pagine Ebraiche. “Now we can celebrate our savior as she deserves. Even after so many years, it’s our duty not to forget.”