The Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, located about 2 km from the Fossoli camp, became a beacon of hope both during the war and in the immediate post-war period: in this parish, Don Francesco Venturelli, appointed parish priest in 1935, worked with dedication to support to inmates and their families.
Since the opening of the prisoners of war camp in July 1942, Venturelli visited it almost daily, often accompanied by the Bishop of Carpi, Monsignor Federico Dalla Zuanna, to bring spiritual comfort to the imprisoned allied soldiers. With the arrival of the Jews and the anti-fascists in December 1943, his commitment became even more valuable. Having obtained permission from the bishop and the Nazi-Fascist authorities, he continued during those months to provide material support and spiritual assistance to the prisoners, regardless of their faith. It is estimated that until November 1944, over 400 family members of people imprisoned for political or racial reasons, or to be sent to Germany for forced labour, were in contact with him, either directly or indirectly, in order to send money, packages and clandestine messages. Don Venturelli involved his parishioners in his activities, providing goods for the camp inmates.
With meticulous dedication, he used to write down in notebooks the names of the prisoners, recording the conditions in the camp and noting the dates of the deportations to the Nazi camps. After the liberation, he helped the relatives of the deportees to find useful information about their loved ones.
At the same time, he continued his work assisting the people held in the Fossoli camp after the war, in particular when the facility became a place of detention for fascists awaiting trial for war crimes. His diary entries go back as far as December 30, 1945; on January 16, his body was found lifeless not far from his church. His altar boy, Olinto Lugli, who was later to be a teacher at the school of the St. Mark's Village, remembers what happened as follows: "At 7 p.m. [on January 15], someone knocked insistently on the rectory door. A stranger, apparently very agitated, started talking about the driver of a car being seriously injured after an accident and said he was looking for a priest for an Extreme Unction. [...]. After a brief moment of reflection, Don Francesco hastily took the Holy Oil, wrapped himself in his cloak and left with the stranger. [...]. Don Francesco and the stranger walked side by side in silence at a rapid pace along the alley for about twenty metres, then the stranger shot the priest aiming at his right temple. Don Francesco turned quickly to the left and got a second shot in the back and fell on the thorny hedge bordering the alley'.
The figure of Venturelli and the role of the Fossoli parish are remembered for the humanity and solidarity shown by the local community during those difficult years of the Nazi-Fascist war. On June 13, 2006, the President of the Italian Republic, Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, recognised Don Venturelli's courage by awarding him the Gold Medal for Civil Valour.
