Père Marie-Benoît

In Marseille in 1940, he found thousands of refugees trying to escape the horrors of World War II. He was determined to help them because, in his own words,

We Christians claim to be spiritual children of the patriarch Abraham. This should be enough reason to exclude any kind of anti-Semitism whatsoever, anti-Semitism being an ideology which we Christians cannot in any way share and be part of.[2]

Father Marie-Benoît's operation focused on finding ways to successfully smuggle Jews out of an increasingly hostile France. Marie-Benoît transformed the Capuchin monastery in Marseille, at 51 Rue de la Croix de Régnier, into his first headquarters.[2] There he organized a massive forging operation, installing and improvising printing facilities to create fake passports, baptism certificates, and other documents that aided hundreds of refugees in crossing the border to Spain and Switzerland.[3] This was often done with the collaboration of Jewish organizations and members of the French resistance.

In November 1942, the Nazis had occupied France's Free Zone, which included Marseille. This precluded the option of helping Jews escape to Switzerland and Spain. Accordingly, Father Benoît turned his attention to the Riviera and Haute-Savoie, occupied by the Italians.[4]

Traveling to Nice, he persuaded Italian officials to permit Jews to cross into the Italian zone.[5] Specifically, he met with Guido Lospinoso, the Italian commissioner of Jewish affairs, whom Mussolini had sent at the Germans' insistence. Father Benoît persuaded Lospinoso to refrain from action against the 30,000 Jews who lived in the vicinity of Nice.[6][7]

Also in Nice, Father Benoît met Angelo Donati, a Jewish banker and director of the French-Italian Bank of Credit. Donati had a plan to transport over the Italien Jews to North Africa by boat. However, in order to approach the Italian authorities, he needed the cooperation of the Holy See.[5]

In July 1943, Father Benoît traveled to Rome to seek the help of Pope Pius XII in transferring Jews to northern Africa.[3] A meeting was arranged between Father Benoît and the pope. When Father Benoit explained that the police in Vichy France were acting against the Jews, Pius XII was surprised, saying, "Who could ever expect this from noble France?"[2] He promised to diligently deal with the situation. However, the North African plan was eventually foiled when the Germans occupied northern Italy and the Italian-occupied zone of France.[6]

Father Marie-Benoît returned briefly to France in order to carry out "the Spanish part of his plan". With authority from the Spanish government of Francisco Franco to decide which French Jews qualified as being of Spanish descent, he managed to save another 2,600 people; there is no record of how many of them actually had any Spanish blood.[5]

Upon the urging of his friends, Father Marie-Benoît disappeared from France and resurfaced in Rome as Padre Benedetti.[7] One of his hiding places was commemorated by the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, a non-governmental organization which researches Holocaust rescuers and advocates for their recognition.

He was elected to the board of DELASEM (Delegazione Assistenza Emigranti Ebrei: "Delegation for the Assistance of Jewish Emigrants"), the central Jewish welfare organization in Italy of which he eventually became president.[5]

Marie-Benoît transferred the DELASEM headquarters to the International College of the Capuchins, and inaugurated an operation to forge documents there.[4][5] His office was raided several times by the Gestapo, early in 1945, with the arrest, torture, and execution of most of the rest of the DELASEM leadership, Father Benoît was persuaded to go into hiding. Against everyone's expectations, he actually survived the war.[4]