I became your enemy because I tell you the truth
“You can fool some of the people all the time and all the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all the people all the time.” A. Lincoln
The priest Pierre-Marie Benois was born in Le Bourg-d’Hire, in western France, on March 30, 1895. Born Pierre Petel, a Franciscan Capuchin saved more than 4,000 Jews during World War II. After serving as an orderly in the French army during the First World War, Benoit became a priest and moved to a Capuchin monastery in Rome. In the Italian capital, Benoit lived simply and poorly, but when the Second World War began, he returned to France.
At home, Priest Pierre-Marie Benoit experienced firsthand the hatred and discrimination of the Vichy regime, which collaborated with the Nazis. In those years, Benoit decided to do everything in his power to save the Jewish refugees. Father Benoit used his connections with the religious laity to smuggle Jewish refugees to Spain and Switzerland. In the basement of the monastery, he printed thousands of false baptismal certificates, forged passports and other documents, thereby helping Jews hide from the authorities.
After the southern borders of France were occupied by the Nazis and their allies in 1942, Benoist persuaded Guido Lospinoso, the Italian commissioner for Jewish affairs, to allow the refugees to move to the Italian zone of occupation in southeastern France.
Benoist met an Italian banker who intended to ship 30,000 Italian Jews to North Africa. The priest went to Pope Pius XII to enlist his support. However, due to the occupation of Northern Italy, the North African evacuation project was not carried out.
After fleeing to Italy, the priest worked with the Jewish community and continued his mission. He helped Jews obtain false documents and additional ration cards. As Susan Zuccotti noted in her scholarly biography Pierre Marie-Benoit and the Salvation of the Jews, the clergyman never tried to convert the Jews to his faith, on the contrary, he always reminded them of the need to preserve their identity.
When Rome was liberated in 1944, the Jewish community thanked Benois at an official ceremony by presenting him with an award. In a 1964 interview with Pageant magazine, US President Lyndon Johnson noted the heroism and amazing deeds of the priest, saying: “This man should inspire the people of the United States to protect the civil rights of all people, regardless of their race, color or creed.”
On April 26, 1966, Yad Vashem awarded Benois the title of Righteous Among the Nations. A tree was planted in his honor in Jerusalem, and the priest commented: “This tree symbolizes not only me, but also those courageous Jews with whom I fought. Without them, I would not have achieved much.”
Michael Loyman