In 1943, Franciscan priest Rufino Niccacci is asked by the bishop of Assisi Giuseppe Placido Nicolini to covertly rescue Italian Jews from the Nazis. He mostly achieves this by hiding then in the monasteries and convents of Assisi and disguising them as Roman Catholic friars and nuns. He also befriends the Wehrmacht's chief medical officer in Assisi - a devout Catholic - who surreptitiously supplies Father Niccacci with medicines. The film implies that either the German military doctor did not know what Father Niccacci was doing or if he did, then he kept silent about it.
At the start of the film's end credits, a short summary is given as to what became of each of the principal historical characters.
The film received a poor response from critics.[2][3]
History
In 1998, The New York Times published an article about an Assisi resident who had come there as a refugee.[4]
On October 5, 2012, The National Catholic Register published a long two-part article pegged to the opening of a new exhibition based on 25 years of research into the city's role in saving thousands of refugees, including approximately 300 Jews.[5][6]
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