Lorenzini FAMILY

Rescue Story

Lorenzini, Lorenzo 
Lorenzini, Antonietta 

Lorenzo and Antonietta Lorenzini were both teachers living in Volterra, Tuscany, with their sons, Dante and Stefano. They were close friends of the Lukacs couple, who also lived in Volterra.

Emerico Lukacs, who was Jewish, had arrived in Italy in 1920 from his native Hungary. He studied dentistry and settled in Volterra, where he opened a dental surgery and married Libia Tassi, a local Catholic woman. The couple had two children, Adriana (b. 1937) and Vittorio (b. 1938). 

In the spring of 1943, Lorenzo arrived at the Lukacs' home and together they built a wall, behind which they stashed the family's valuables and prohibited objects, such as the radio. 
In September 1943, the Italian government signed an armistice agreement with the Allies, and Germany occupied Italy. Lorenzo Lorenzini told his friend Emerico Lukacs that he had received information that the dentist was on the list of Jews to be arrested. He hid Lukacs in his home for a number of days, and then found him a place to stay with a family in Ponzano, a small village near Volterra, where Antonietta taught. Antonietta moved to Ponzano with Dante and Stefano, giving Lorenzo an excuse to travel back and forth to Ponzano. The real reason for his visits was to act as liaison between Lukacs and his family back in Volterra. 

In January 1944, the danger of arrest in the area increased, and Lorenzini moved Lukacs back to Volterra, and hid him in his own house. In April, Lorenzini was arrested on charges of being involved in an assassination attempt of a Fascist officer. His wife suggested that Lukacs be transferred to the home of her parents in Montecatini Val di Cecina. In May 1944, Lorenzini, who had been released from jail, helped Lukacs reach the home his father-in-law Emilio Tassi, where Libia and the children were staying. Lorenzini built a hiding place in the house for his friend, where he hid until the area was liberated in July 1944. 

In October 1944, the Lukacs family returned to Volterra, and continued their friendship with the Lorenzinis. After Lorenzo Lorenzini passed away in 1978, Dr. Lukacs established a humanitarian fund in his memory. 

On March 24, 2010, Yad Vashem recognized Lorenzo and Antonietta Lorenzini as Righteous Among the Nations