Franciscan monks 'saved Jews hidden in Assisi belltower'

(ANSA) - Perugia, January 26 - Franciscan monks in Assisi saved more than 40 Jews during the Second World War by hiding them inside the belltower of St Francis' Basilica in the Umbrian hilltown, the Roman Catholic order disclosed Tuesday on its website sanfrancesco.org.
    The fugitives were hidden in the tower in groups of four to six people with the superior of the monastery not aware of their presence, according to the article written as part of literature on the eve of the Holocaust Day of memory.
    Each evening when the organ was played the people in hiding were able to leave the belltower briefly without ever being spotted by the Nazis.
    "Like St Francis people have to make themselves instruments of peace," said Fr Enzo Fortunato, head of the press office of the monastery.