A family of former sharecroppers in the coastal Tuscan city of Livorno was named Righteous Among the Nations Thursday for hiding persecuted Jews on their farm during the Second World War.

The “Righteous Among the Nations” award is a high honour from Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and Institute, given to non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust, recognizing their immense courage and altruism.

The Cipolli family was awarded the title of “Righteous Among the Nations,” the Jewish state’s highest honor, at the Jewish Temple in Livorno.

The honour was presented to Gina Cipolli, a surviving member who is now 94 years old—she was a teenager at the time—at the recommendation of one of the rescued Jews, Guido Guastalla.

During the Second World War and the implementation of the racial laws in Italy, her family, the Cipollis, sharecroppers on the Casciavola farm in Cascina (Pisa), saved several Jewish families from Livorno, risking their own lives.

Members of the Franco, Guastalla, and Belforte families were hidden.

They had fled Livorno to escape the bombings, persecution under the racial laws, and German roundups.

The honour was awarded by Yad Vashem, the Israeli Holocaust memorial center in Jerusalem.

The initiative was attended by Rabbi Umberto Piperno and Gianfranco Giachetti, president of the Jewish community of Livorno, as well as Susanna Ceccardi, who was mayor of Cascina when the process began six years ago, and Livorno City Councilor Rocco Garufo.

The event was sponsored by the Israeli Embassy and the Jewish Community of Livorno.

“After a long investigation,” Guastalla said, “the day has finally arrived to bestow this honour in memory of the Cipolli family.

The Cipolli farm was far from the farm, and their family, who were also very religious, was considered reliable and safe enough to host women, men, the elderly, and children—those whose lives were in danger. No one in the Cipolli family raised any objections, even knowing the mortal risks they were facing.

“Not only did they save us, but they also guarded the family’s possessions until the end of the war, so they could return them.” The Cipollis were sharecroppers on the Casciavola farm that belonged to the Franco brothers, Sephardic Jews, whose ancestors had arrived in Livorno from Portugal thanks to the Livorno Laws enacted at the end of the 16th century by Ferdinand I de’ Medici.

Photo: Israel’s Foreign Minister Gideon Saar at Yad Vashem earlier this year

It is a great emotion for us to meet her.