<p>After Nazi German occupied post-Mussolini Rome, Fiorentini escaped from prisons four times during twenty months of anti-Nazi struggle. He remained an important witness for a society prone to forgetting the horrors of far-right politics.</p>
<p>After Nazi German occupied post-Mussolini Rome, Fiorentini escaped from prisons four times during twenty months of anti-Nazi struggle. He remained an important witness for a society prone to forgetting the horrors of far-right politics.</p>
An account of the groups to the left of the PCI, during WW2 by Arturo Peregalli. First published in 'Revolutionary History, Vol.5, No.4' ( Translated by Barbara Rossi and Doris Bornstein. It is based upon Peregalli’s 'Il Partito Comunista Internazionalista', and 'L’altra Resistenza: Il PCI e le opposizioni di sinistra in Italia, 1943–45', which first appeared as a series of fascicles in the 'Studi e Ricerche' series of the Centro Pietro Tresso (nos. 2, 4, 5, 8, 16, 17 and 21) and later as a full length book published by Graphos (Genoa 1991).
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.