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1943 July 16, FATHER PIERRE-MARIE BENOIT / PADRE BENEDITTI (Italian Occupied France)
Known in Marseilles as "the Father of the Jews." Pledging himself to protect Jewish refugees, he met with the Pope Pius XII. Marie-Benoit realized that it was only a matter of time before the Germans took over France and asked the pope to help convince Mussolini to allow 30,000 safe passage through Italy and settle them in North Africa. Unfortunately, with the fall of the Badoglio government and the occupation by the Germans of northern Italy, the plan came to naught.
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