Biography of Marianne Spier Donati
In 1942, Angelo Donati's life intersects with that of the Spier family. Marianne and Rolf Spier, accompanied by their parents Carl and Hilde, have left Germany to seek refuge in France. Interned in the Gurs camp and then placed under house arrest in Cap d'Ail, a small town between Monaco and Nice, the family receives a visit from Lise Klein and her husband Piero Sacerdoti, who leave a potentially useful telephone number: that of Angelo Donati.
A few days later, the Spier family was arrested by the French police and taken to the Auvare barracks in Nice. To protect their children, the Spier parents were hospitalized. Marianne remembers a last look exchanged with her mother, who was carried away on a stretcher.
The children were transferred to the offices of the Union Générale des Israélites de France (UGIF), where they were asked if they had a place to stay. Marianne, who had a notebook with useful information, gave Angelo Donati's number. Although he was not there at the time of the call, he immediately went to the UGIF as soon as he was informed, took the children under his wing and welcomed them into his home after temporarily putting them up with friends.
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On November 11, 1942, the Italian army occupied Nice. Angelo Donati, on good terms with the fascist authorities and the Italian military, played a crucial role by using his connections to protect the Jewish community. He set up a plan to evacuate Jews from the Italian occupation zone to North Africa, then to Palestine. He organized the issuance of false papers, found the necessary funding, and chartered ocean liners for this mission.
After the announcement of the armistice on September 8, 1943, the persecution of Jews intensified in Nice. Angelo Donati took refuge in Tuscany with Marianne, Rolf and his butler François Moraldo. Unable to take the children with him in his flight to Switzerland, he entrusted them to François Moraldo, who transported them to the isolated village of Creppo, where they lived like mountain dwellers.
In 1945, François Moraldo was ordered to bring the children back to Paris. Marianne and Rolf found Angelo Donati, and resumed their life with him. Angelo Donati became very involved in the reconstruction of relations between France and Italy, was appointed general delegate of the Italian Red Cross, and played an active role in diplomatic affairs.
In 1953 he was appointed chargé d'affaires of the Republic of San Marino with the rank of minister plenipotentiary. When it was confirmed that Marianne and Rolf's parents would not return, Angelo Donati adopted them, and they became Spier Donati. Angelo Donati died on 30 December 1960 and was buried in the Jewish cemetery in Modena.
Marianne Spier Donati became a photographer and painter, and passed away in April 2023. Her exceptional career and that of Angelo Donati bear witness to remarkable resilience and humanity.
