Angelo Rotta

Righteous Among the Nations
The Holocaust Rescuers of Jews Righteousness Seven Laws of Noah Yad Vashem
By country
Austrian Croatian German Hungarian Lithuanian Norwegian Polish (list) Romanian Serbian Ukrainian
v t e

Angelo Rotta (9 August 1872 – 1 February 1965) was an Italian prelate of the Catholic Church. As the

Early years

Rotta was born in Milan, Italy, on 9 August 1872. He was ordained a priest on 10 February 1895.

On 16 October 1922, Pope Pius XI named him titular archbishop of Thebes and Apostolic Internuncio to Central America,^[1] which then covered Costa Rica, El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua.^[2] He received his episcopal consecration from Cardinal Pietro Gasparri, the Vatican Secretary of State, on 1 November 1922.^{[citation needed]} He was named Apostolic Internuncio to Panama as well on 21 September 1923^[3] even as his responsibilities toward other countries in Central America continued. On 9 May 1925, Pope Pius appointed him Apostolic Delegate to Turkey.^[4]

During his diplomatic service in

On 20 March 1930, Pope Pius named him Apostolic Nuncio to Hungary,^[5] a position he held for fifteen years.

As

On 15 November 1944, the Hungarian Government established the "Big Ghetto" for 69,000 Jews, while a further 30,000 with protective documents went to the International Ghetto.[8] On 19 November 1944, the Vatican joined the four other neutral powers - Sweden, Spain, Portugal and Switzerland - in a further collective protest to the Hungarian Government calling for the suspension of deportations of the Jews.^[9] The government complied, and banned the "death marches" - but Budapest was by that stage near anarchy, and deportations continued from 21 November. The Arrow Cross continued their orgy of violence, raiding the international Ghetto and murdering Jews, as Soviet forces approached the city. Rotta and Wallenberg were among the few diplomats to remain in Budapest. Following the Soviet conquest of the city, Wallenberg was seized by the Russians and taken to Moscow, from where he was never released. Gilbert wrote that of the hundred and fifty thousand Jews who had been in Budapest when the Germans arrived in March 1944, almost 120,000 survived to liberation - 69,000 from the Big Ghetto, 25,000 in the International Ghetto and a further 25,000 hiding out in Christian homes and religious institutes across the city.^[10]

Post-war

Rotta retired from diplomacy in 1957.

Pope Paul VI paid him a surprise visit at his Vatican residence on Easter Sunday in March 1964.^[11]

He was recognized as Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem in 1997.^[12]

In 2010 a section of embankment on the Buda side of the river Danube in Budapest (between Margaret Bridge and Batthyány Square) was named Angelo Rotta rakpart ("Angelo Rotta embankment") in his honour.

References

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Angelo Rotta.