From a family known for its anti-fascist sentiments - two of his brothers, Aldo and Gerardo, were killed by the regime -, during the war Father Girolamo Tagliaferro worked in defense of the weakest, assisted partisans, allied prisoners, Jews and wanted politicians.
Tagliaferro acted courageously on the side of the Resistance: he collected clothing, food and medicines to send to the partisans in the mountains and made great efforts to save the Jews who were in Schio (Vicenza) and in the surrounding area.
He welcomed 45 Jews from Ferrara, Trieste and Yugoslavia.
Among them were the sisters Ada, Bice and Lidia Morpurgo. The priest welcomed them kindly, hosting them at the Institute of the Sacred Heart. The nuns together with the archpriest Tagliaferro, in the two years of stay of the sisters, assisted them with devotion and friendship.
Father Girolamo Tagliaferro also helped the Eppinger and Bruckner families, lodging them in the institutions of Schio and the surrounding area. He got them the false identity documents that would allow them to reach Switzerland.
Carlo Fölkel and his aunt Enrica Steif also owe their salvation to him.
For these actions, he was persecuted by the fascists and isolated from his superiors.
The words of Lidia and Bice Morpurgo: "We have great gratitude for that noble priest, also because he never put any pressure on us to convert to his faith. He too would have been killed like his brothers if the war had continued any longer".
Reported by Ugo De Grandis
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