This is coming out of the Italian newspaper, L’Avvenire which has a very nice article on Ven. Odoardo Focherini, an Italian journalist who is to be beatified June 15, 2013.
Focherini was an administrator for this newspaper back in the 1940s. He was also active in Azione cattolica, which remains today in Italy.
Focherini died in the Nazi concentration camp at Hersbruck, Germany in 1944 for having assisted Jews to escape Italy during the Second World War. He was, then, a martyr of the faith due to odium fidei.
Focherini was a normal married man, the father of a family and a passionate journalist. He was involved both with the Church and with the social realities of his time. In September, 1943, he felt a call to a radical act of charity and he assisted a friend and a priest, Fr. Dante Sala in putting together a network to help Jews escape Italy to Switzerland. He was arrested in the spring of 1944. He came to know another martyr for the faith, Teresio Olivelli. He eventually was transported to Hersbruck where he died on December 27, 1944 due to septicemia of the legs.
He wrote letters during his imprisonment that eventually made their way to his mother. In them, we get a glimpse of his faith, his serenity and his thoughts about his life and his family.
He was named one of the Just by the Israeli government in 1969. His biography was published this year, entitled: Un “Giusto fra le Nazioni”
Google him and learn more of his life and example.
