In 1942, the Spier family—Marianne, her brother Rolf, and their parents Carl and Hilde—flee Germany for France. Interned in the Gurs camp and then placed under house arrest in Cap d'Ail, they receive Angelo Donati's phone number from Lise Klein and Piero Sacerdoti, a contact that will prove to be lifesaving.
The arrest by the French police took the family to the Auvare barracks in Nice. In a final sacrifice, the parents were hospitalized to protect their children. The last look shared between Marianne and her mother, carried out on a stretcher, marked a tragic turning point in her life.
Transferred to the UGIF offices, the children gave the number of Angelo Donati, who, although absent, immediately rushed to them and took them under his protection. The Italian occupation of Nice on November 11, 1942, allowed Donati to use his connections with the fascist authorities to protect the Jewish community, even organizing an evacuation plan to North Africa and then Palestine.
The armistice of September 8, 1943, intensified the persecution. Donati fled to Tuscany with Marianne and Rolf, then entrusted them to Francis Moraldo, who hid them in the isolated village of Creppo, where they lived like mountain dwellers until 1945.
Their return to Paris in 1945 reunited the children with Angelo Donati, who, having become the general delegate of the Italian Red Cross and then chargé d'affaires of San Marino, officially adopted them. They became Spier Donati after confirmation of their parents' disappearance.
After Donati's death on December 30, 1960, Marianne developed her artistic career in photography and painting. Her work, nourished by this traumatic experience and the extraordinary humanity she received, demonstrates remarkable resilience. Her passing in April 2023 marks the end of an exceptional career that illustrates the ability of art to transform suffering into creativity, perpetuating the memory of those who risked their lives to save innocents.
