Francesco Repetto

Francesco Repetto
Father Francesco Repetto, 1943
Born	1914 Genoa, Italy
Died	1984 Genoa, Italy
Occupation	Catholic Priest

Monsignor Francesco Repetto (Genoa, 1914–1984) was an Italian priest and librarian. He is honored by Jews as a Righteous Among the Nations for his leading role in the clandestine DELASEM organization, which contributed to the saving of thousands of Jews during the Holocaust in Italy during the German occupation.

As a young man he studied at Gregorian University. While in Rome he met and became friends with Monsignor Giovanni Battista Montini (the future Pope Paul VI). He was ordained into the priesthood in 1938 and two years later, was appointed secretary to the Archbishop of Genoa Pietro Boetto. Genoa in the meantime was chosen as the headquarters of DELASEM, a legal Jewish organization chaired by the lawyer Avvocato Lelio Vittorio Valobra, dedicated to providing assistance to the growing number of Jewish refugees in Italy.

From September 8, 1943 onwards, after the German occupation of Italy, Jews and foreigners in the territories of the Italian Social Republic were systematically deported. Before Valobra was expelled to Switzerland, he turned to Cardinal Boetto with the request to merge the activities of DELASEM, which had been forced to go underground, with those of the Genoa Curia, Repetto was directed to distribute the financial aid Massimo Teglio, known as The Scarlet Pimpernel (primula rossa) to the Jews of Genoa. Teglio re-organized DELASEM as a clandestine organization and produced false identity cards in private homes and hideouts in religious houses, while Father Repetto served as treasurer for the collection and distribution of the money that came from Switzerland through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.