WAR, OCCUPATION AND RESISTANCE
Resistance
Resistance in Rome
Citizens of the Eternal City was not so complacent seeing Germans marching into their city. The first outbreaks of resistance to occupation involved Italian soldiers and citizens taking up arms to defend themselves against the Germans. Porta San Paolo, the main area of fighting, was a location of heavy attacks from both sides on September 8 and 9. While the Germans were able to overpower the resistors at Porta San Paolo, the battle signified the first act of Italian resistance against the Germans. This resistance fighting would continue through the nine months of German occupation. As time went on, Communists, Socialists, and others from all political affiliations would come together to form a more organized resistance movement. These partisans fought day and night to keep the Germans at bay.
One of the large umbrella resistance groups, the Comitato di Liberazione Nazionale (Committee of National Liberation, or CLN) was comprised of partisans from the Communist Party, Italian Socialist Party, Christian Democrats, and others. Each of these parties had their own partisan resistance activities but combined together to create a strong unified force against the Germans. Soon, the party gained support from the Italian Royal government and the backing from the Allied powers coming up from the south.
One resistance group, the “Garibaldi Brigade”, showed their passion for an independent Italy from Germany by the name alone. The brigade was a communist resistance group named after the leader of the Italian Unification Giuseppe Garibaldi, connection the beginning of their country to now keeping Italy unified and free of oppression. Groups named after previous Italian heroes showed the connection they were making to their history and national pride. Romans pride in fighting and remembrance of Nazi oppression is still seen today in neighborhoods such as Quadraro in Rome.
In July of 1943, after the Allies invaded Sicily during Operation Husky and began advancing through the island, Benito Mussolini and the rest of his regime were arrested. A new government was put in place, led by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, who surrendered to the Allied forces on Friday, September 8, 1943. Two days later, on September 10, the Germans had full control of Rome, controlling it and its people under Hitler’s Nazi regime. The Italian Resistance was born.
Italian Resistance throughout Italy varied between region and city. However, resistance in Rome was strong, and many different groups began to form. Some fought for political reasons, others fought to save their city, but they all fought to help fight Nazi tyranny.
Photo: Team 2014, Plaque honoring the Roman resistance on Porto
S. Paolo
Quadraro
Known as “the hornets nest” by the Nazis during their occupation of Rome, Quadraro had a reputation for being a main area where anti-fascist, anti-Nazi, and resistance fighters lived. On April 17, 1944, after a resistance fighter killed three German soldiers seven days earlier near Cinecitta, the Nazis came into the neighborhood, taking and deporting over 900 people to Germany. This was a defining moment for the neighborhood and its people, creating a long lasting memory of those lost on that morning of April 17. The roundup caused the people of Quadraro to fight harder and before Rome was liberated, they declared Quararo independent from the Nazis control. To this day the people still remember their heritage of fighting against Nazi tyranny with a mural of hornets that says, “You are now entering free Quadraro.”
SLIDESHOW, RIGHT: the signs of German occupation and Italian resistance can be found throughout the city. Photos by MU Students, 2014.
Memorials to those who lost their lives during the Roman Resistance 1943-44
As resistance fighters, sabotage and small scale attacks were their specialty. Fighters would annoy the Nazis by throwing spikes at German convoy trucks tires, popping them and delaying the Nazis transportation. Some would steal from the Nazis, giving what they took to citizens around Rome in need. Some would cut telephone and telegraph lines to cut off communication from Rome to Germany. Others would sneak up and kill Germans, such as the man mentioned before near Cinecitta. Bigger efforts were also done, such as the bombing by resistance members at Via Rasella that killed 33 German soldiers. Overall, resistance fighters did anything they could to annoy, distract, and hurt the ability of the Nazis to communicate, or kill the Nazis who were occupying their city. No matter what, every fighter wanted to help his or her city become independent again.
Some partisans fought in smaller groups, or even sometimes alone. One partisan named Giuseppe Albano (a.k.a. the Hunchback of Quarticciolo because of his curved back and the neighborhood he was from) was known as a Robin Hood type of figure around Rome and in his neighborhood for his acts breaking into German supply buildings and stealing goods such as flour and other items to give to the citizens of Rome. His other acts of sabotage to the Germans during their occupation made him a legend in his neighborhood and made the Germans focus on watching for him and his group of associates throughout the occupation.
Photo: 2014 team, Entrance to Quadraro
Women in the Resistance
Contrary to many popularly-held views, women played an important role in the resistance effort all over Italy. The Women’s Defense and Assistance Groups, or Gddd, was the largest organization of women resistance fighters. At least 70,000 strong by 1945, the Gddd had its most success in the north, in Milan and Turin in particular. In Rome, however, with no Gddd or equivalent women’s organization, women participated as members of the various partisan groups. Many were actively involved in the fighting, with at least 35,000 across Italy engaging in combat during the resistance, although the number may be even larger (Alano).
Carla Capponi joined the resistance in Rome and was a key member of the GAP. Born in 1918, Carla was a former law student who gave up her studies to enter the workforce when her father suddenly passed away in 1940. She became a member of the Communist Party, and upon Nazi invasion in the fall of 1943, her home became a hub of resistance activity. Located in the heart of Rome, near the Foro di Traiano, the apartment was a publishing house for partisan newspapers, a boardroom for the GAP, and a shelter for fleeing soldiers and resistance members. In addition to providing a physical space for the resistance, Carla became a leader of the movement, helping plan and execute the attack on Via Rasella, the biggest single act of Roman resistance. Although her role in the bombing would lead to controversy following the Fosse Ardeatine massacre, Carla survived the war to become a member of Parliament and remained politically active until her death in 2000. Carla ultimately is remembered as the main representative of women’s role in the resistance, although she was far from the sole participant (Scarparo).
Photo: Teresa Gullaca, wikicommons
Photo: Scene from Open City, based
on death of Teresa Gullace
Photo: Carla Capponi, deputy Italian Parliament,
wikicommons.
Even women who were not actively planning bombings or writing for partisan papers occasionally found themselves at the forefront of Nazi persecution, becoming martyrs for the resistance. Following a roundup of Italian men in early 1944, hundreds of women crowded outside the prisoners’ barracks in protest of their loved ones’ captivity. Suddenly, a pregnant woman named Teresa Gullace broke through the masses, attempting to toss a package (probably food) to her imprisoned husband. She was quickly seized and shot at point-blank range by a Nazi while her young son and the hundreds of women gathered there looked on (Katz). The outrage over the mother of five’s death was immense, leading to the release of her husband, and making Gullace a symbol for the resistance as a whole. Director Roberto Rossellini immortalized Gullace in his 1945 film about Nazi-occupied Rome, Roma città aperta, with famed actress Anna Magnani portraying Pina, a character inspired by Teresa’s story. Today, a memorial plaque to Teresa Gullace resides on Viale Giulo Cesare, the site of her murder (Roma).
Gullace’s disobedience led to her death, and outright aggression from other women would unfortunately lead to theirs. Following the attack on Via Rasella, Roman citizens’ bread rations were drastically reduced. The already starving people grew desperate. In April, women who had previously lined up for hours for their measly rations began rioting at bakeries throughout Rome, mostly in working class neighborhoods like Quadraro (nicknamed the “wasps’ nest” by the Nazis), taking flour and clashing with fascist police. After weeks of such “bread riots” and an increasing partisan organizing presence, the tension came to a head when a group of women and children raided a Nazi-servicing bakery in the Ostiense neighborhood. The SS then arrested ten of the women and shot them with machine guns on the nearby Ponte di Ferro bridge.
While the women of Rome may not have had an official resistance group to call their own, like the Gddd of the north, they found ways to make their presence known through official partisan involvement and everyday disdain for the Nazi occupation. Their footprints are seen throughout Rome, especially in working class neighborhoods where their legacy is alive and well.
Sources
Alano, Jomarie, Armed with a Yellow Mimosa: Women's Defence and Assistance Groups in Italy, 1943-45. Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 38 (4), 615-631.
Katz, Robert, Battle For Rome. Simon and Schuster. New York. 2003.
Roma città aperta. Dir. Robert Rossellini. Perf. Aldo Fabrizi, Anna Magnani, Marcello Pagliero. Minerva Film SPA, 1945. Web.
Scarparo, Susanna and Rita Wilson, Across Genres, Generations, and Borders: Italian Women Writing Lives. University of Delaware Press, 2004.
MILITARY RESISTANCE--FMCR
In the aftermath of the German invasion, there was still some effective resistance put up by Italian military units. Because they were unable to conventionally defend Rome, the members of the military still loyal to the king created the Militare Clandestino della Resistenza (FMCR). Independent and differing in goals from the CLN, the FMCR wanted to facilitate the allies and other resistance groups to push the Germans out of Rome and secure it for the monarchy in the succeeding power vacuum. (Katz, N.P.) Their orders from the government in Brindsi were to fight the Germans and maintain public order.
The FMCR was set apart from other resistance groups in Rome because they gathered information and shared it with the allies instead of directly attacking the Germans. Led by the highly respected Colonel Giuseppe Montezemolo, the FMCR allowed for allied bombers to bomb strategic targets in Rome while minimizing civilian casualties. (Stafford, 15) They also preferred to avoid direct attacks against German targets so that there would be no reprisals against the civilians of Rome for rebellious attacks. It also focused on protecting the civilian population by forging documents for Roman Jews and helping them to escape the city. (Stafford, 16) The FMCR also used large amounts of propaganda in an attempt to raise the spirits of the Roman population. But after the capture of much its leadership on January 25, 1944, the FMCR ceased to be an effective unit of resistance against the German occupation. (Katz, n.p.) It was no longer able successfully coordinate with the allies and the strategic bombing of the city became more erratic.
Colonel Giuseppe Montezemolo
Colonel Giuseppe Montezemolo was an aristocrat that became an extremely important member of the Roman resistance. A member of the Italian military since 1918, Montezemolo was a radio specialist who gained field experience during the Spanish Civil War as well as Greece and Russia during World War II. (Stafford, 15) After the German occupation of Italy, Montezemolo was left in Rome after the king and majority of the high command left for Brindisi. When the Germans occupied the War ministry on September 23, he escaped wearing civilian clothes under the face name of Giacomo Catterato and later created Militare Clandestino della Resistenza, (Katz, n.p.) Montezemolo differed from the majority of the resistance groups in Rome in that he was strictly loyal to the king, regardless of the king’s political affiliation. (Gallo, 102) It was a tradition in his family to serve the monarch loyally through military service. Montezemolo recruited likeminded individuals for his unit, mostly from military units stationed in Rome during the German invasion and from the Carabinieri, many of which remained loyal to Victor Emmanuel. (Gallo, 103.) Montezemolo also wished for the partisan groups to coordinate with his unit but they were unwilling to submit to military leadership due to their political differences.
On January 25, 1944, Montezemolo was captured along with many other FMCR leaders. He was imprisoned in the Via Tasso prison and tortured for two months. His captors were unable to get any information about the members of his organization from him and Montezemolo managed to thoroughly impress his torturers with his resilience. (Katz, n.p.) After the Via Rasella attack, Montezemolo was chosen as one of the 335 individuals to be executed at the Ardeatine Massacre on March 25, 1944. The Germans considered him the most important prisoner that was to be executed that day. (Katz, n.p.) After the occupation ended, Montezemolo was seen as a hero of the resistance in Rome and received the Italian Gold Medal for Military Valour. The last sentence of the award’s citation is “So he ended, in the pure light of martyrdom, a heroic life, fully and nobly spent in the service of the Nation.” (Presidenza Della Republica)
Sources
Katz, Robert, Battle For Rome. Simon and Schuster. New York. 2003.
Gallo, Patrick J. For Love and Country: The Italian Resistance. University Press of America. Maryland. 2003.
Stafford, David. Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943-1945. Random House. 2011.
http://www.quirinale.it/elementi/DettaglioOnorificenze.aspx?decorato=13302. Website of the Italian President. Citation for Montezemolo’s Medal for Military Valour.
The Italian Resistance was crucial to fighting Nazi oppression because no matter how bad the Nazis would treat the Romans, they kept getting back up and fighting. It showed just how strong a group of people could be and how important freeing themselves from Nazi tyranny was. Men, women, children, and even elderly fought back against the Nazis in hope of one day freeing themselves from the Nazi oppression.
Finally, on June 4, 1944, the Allies liberated Rome, and Nazi oppression came to an end for the people and resistance fighters of Rome. After almost 10 months of Nazi oppression and tyranny, the people of Rome were free.