The Irish Pimpernell and the Gestapo Chief
When Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty – the ‘Scarlet Pimpernell of the Vatican’ – heard the massive explosion in Rome on the afternoon of 23 March, 1944, he knew he had to act quickly. Rome’s worst nightmare was about to begin, but one that, typical of the man, would have a compassionate ending, as PAT POLAND explains.
On 3 September, 1943, at the height of the Second World War, the Italian government surrendered unconditionally to the Allies. Shortly after, German forces began occupying Rome, and King Victor Emmanuel III and government officials fled to the south leaving the Italian army leaderless and in chaos.
For Here Be Barbarians
Her collapsing body was now that of a marionette deprived of her nimble puppeteer. A young life ending, bloodily, in front of me and the surging throng. Taken by the stabbing tip of an umbrella, on a subway platform, on a dry Italian day. On her face no indication of that irony. Only…what? Resignation? Acceptance? For this was Rome and here be barbarians.
In Via Rasella, near the Trevi Fountain, I counted, as the rain fell, the bullet and bomb scars that recall the 23rd of March, 1944. Italian partisans, tiring of the German Occupation and fascist intransigence, ended the lives of thirty-three Nazi security personnel before escaping, unharmed, into the smoke and mayhem.