Goffredo Pacifici worked for the Italian Jewish aid organization Delasem. In July 1942 the organization rented Villa Emma in the northern Italian town of Nonantola. They used the building to house more than 70 Jewish children escaped from Germany, Austria, and Yugoslavia. Pacifici worked in the department for interned prisoners, which was relocated to Villa Emma in the spring of 1943. This was how Pacifici came into contact with the children.
When German troops occupied Italy in September 1943, Goffredo Pacifici and the caretaker Josef Indig planned the group’s escape to Switzerland. They contacted representatives of Zionist organizations to ensure that they would not be deported after secretly crossing the border. Then the children crossed the border river Tresa in small groups between October 6 and 17, 1943. Once in Switzerland, they were taken first to a refugee camp and then to a home in the Rhône Valley.
Goffredo Pacifici remained in Italy to help other Jews escape. He was arrested in Ponte Tresa with his brother Aldo in December 1943, and murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1944.