Father Cubbe – Righteous Among the Nations
The ceremony was held on December 14th, 2010 in Rome. The title for rescuing Jews was awarded posthumously. The distinction was presented to the nephew of the Righteous, Francesco de Ghantuz Cubbe.
Israel was represented at the ceremony by Mordechay Levy, ambassador of this country to the Holy See. Two of the boys saved by father Cubbe – Marco Pavoncello and Graziano Sonnino – today men of advanced age, participated in the event. The third rescued, Mario Sonnino, passed away last year.
The chairman of the Jewish Community of Rome, Riccardo Pacifici who also participated in the ceremony, reminded that his father was also rescued by Catholic priests. He also emphasized that among people honored with the title “Righteous Among the Nations” were 487 Italians.
Father Raffaele de Ghantuz Cubbe, born in 1904 in Italy, came from a Catholic Maronite family, who moved to Tuscany a few hundred years ago from Aleppo, Syria and with time adopted the Latin rite.
In the forties father Raffaele was president of the Jesuit college Mondragone in the town of Frascati near Rome. During the Nazi occupation, with the help of Jesuits he managed to hide three Jewish boys: Marco Pavoncello and two brothers, Mario and Graziano Sonnino. The Jesuits did not try to convert the children.
The Yad Vashem Institute accorded the title to father Cubbe basing on the testimonies of the three Jews. The procedure was started in 2004 by Celeste Pavoncello, daughter of one of the rescued.
Father Raffaele de Ghantuz Cubbe died in 1983, at the age of 79.
More on the website of the Raoul Wallenberg Foundation.
