Read The Vatican Pimpernel Online
Authors: Brian Fleming
The Vatican Pimpernel (21 page)
As a result of several denouncements, the Via Merulana is being closely watched these days since British and American ex PW are reported to be hidden there. Houses will shortly be searched. House number 181 is under suspicion ⦠An anonymous denouncement has been filed at the central police headquarters stating the presence of a New Zealand prisoner in a house of the Via Collegio Romano.
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Even more interestingly he reports on likely sources of help. For example he supplied information to Derry in relation to one Pizzirani, head of the political office.
I am informed that PIZZIRANI ⦠can be easily bribed since he realises that Rome will shortly fall into Allied hands and he wants to make all his various activities as lucrative as possible before he has to leave the capital ⦠PIZZIRANI is willing to annul all the documents relative to the ex PW and to avoid obeying any orders for the rounding-up of ex PW â or at least to see that these orders are not carried out with the expected results desired by the German and Fascist police. He asks 50,000 Lire for this. Our informer who acts as go between wants 10,000 Lire for himself.
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Giuseppe was also able to confirm a suspicion which Derry had that the Germans were now sending out agents dressed as priests in an effort to get in touch with British escapees. Eventually de Vial made his way from the French Embassy to visit Derry and reported that Perfetti, who had met Derry when he first arrived in Rome, was the betrayer. He had been in the organisation from its earliest days and knew the whereabouts of a large number of billets. It seems he had been arrested, handed over to Koch and had cracked under torture. Not only had he guided Koch and his men to the hideouts, but he had operated the secret signal to gain admission. Within a few days, 21 escapees had been recaptured and more than a dozen Italians who were hiding them had been arrested.
By this time, John Furman had moved to live with the family of Romeo Giuliani and his wife, together with their three daughters and two sons, on the Via Buonarroti near the Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, which meant he was nearer those for whom he was caring. One of the sons, Gino, eighteen years of age, became a very valuable assistant for Furman. He and his friend Memo were set the task of finding new billets. They found some outside the city but the situation was getting more difficult within it. The rationing system, which had never been very efficient, had more or less broken down completely and it was now costing a lot of money to keep escapees and evaders within Rome. Eventually additional funds were made available which relieved the situation to some extent. They secured two new billets through the help of Theresa, a friend of Mrs Chevalier, and Signor Pediconi, solicitor to Nini Pallavicini, who was still in hiding in the German College.
On hearing that Perfetti had been arrested, Gino told Furman that he knew him. Furman instantly sensed danger and moved to another location but, when nothing happened, returned to the Giuliani home on 5 April. He happened to be out on 7 April when the Fascists arrived and arrested both father and son. Again under torture, the boy cracked and began to leak information. Of all the billets he knew about, only two were not raided during this period. Simpson meanwhile, unaware of this problem, had gone to the flat which a few weeks previously had been used as a clearing house to which the Monsignor sent all new arrivals. This was located in the basement of a block of flats which the Vatican used to house some of its officials and it was located less than 100 yards from St Peter's Square. Furman recalls:
The porter, Paolino, in his forties, was a sprightly tiny man, perhaps four feet six inches in height. His heart, however, was as big as his stature was small. Although the accommodation available for his wife and small children was extremely limited, he, nevertheless, accepted whomever the Monsignor might send him. At times, as many as seven British, Dominion or American soldiers would be in hiding there. It was part of the arrangement that no prisoner should be kept there for more than two or three nights, so that space should be available for new arrivals.
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On arrival, Furman found that the Fascists had already called and dragged Paolino away but the five British escapees were still there. In the few moments before he opened the door, Paolino had the presence of mind to put the five into a cellar and push his bed over the trapdoor entrance. Simpson immediately moved these five to other billets. Derry and O'Flaherty were very concerned to note that these arrests were moving closer to the Chevalier apartment. As a result of the increased level of activity by the security forces, an instruction was sent to Furman and Simpson to move around carefully and with extra caution. Simpson never received this message. He simply vanished. His involvement in the organisation was such that he had been ordered never to spend two successive nights at the same location. He was staying with the American lieutenant, Dukate, on 18 April when the Germans raided during the night and arrested him. By this time, Simpson was using new identity cards which O'Flaherty had provided, naming him as William O'Flynn, an Irish citizen employed in the Vatican Library. Notwithstanding this, Dukate and Simpson were placed under arrest and taken from the premises. They were put in the back seat of a German car and two German Gestapo men sat on top of them. Simpson and Dukate both had documents on them that might have proved incriminating had they been discovered. As it happened, the window of the car on Simpson's side was partially open. He managed to extract his wallet including the documents and 8,000 lire, and push it out through the window without being seen.
I prayed that some thoroughly dishonest person would pick it up and, in order to keep the money, would not hand it over to the police. In Rome right now the prayer had a strong chance of being answered.
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In the same way he then managed to get rid of 5,000 lire and some papers which Dukate was carrying. Within a few minutes they had arrived at the Regina Coeli prison.
Giuseppe could not get any information about Simpson from his sources. By the same token, Molly Stanley's visits to the prison had no success. Even an intervention by a film star, Flora Volpini, in whose apartment both Furman and Simspon had stayed at various times, was unsuccessful. She went to visit the Governor of the Regina Coeli prison, who was an old friend of hers, but he had no knowledge of any prisoner named Simpson. It emerged later that Simpson was using the false name from his forged identity cards.
In a letter back to the Dublin authorities, MacWhite casts a clinical eye on recent events:
In its long history and throughout its many vicissitudes it would be difficult to find a parallel for the Rome of today. It has over two million inhabitants â a fourth of whom are refugees from the war zone or from bombed out homes ⦠the bread ration has been reduced to three and a half ounces per day and no pasta has been distributed since February. How the people live is a mystery ⦠there are several political parties the best organised and strongest of which is the communist. A number of clandestine newspapers are also published ⦠The average Roman is and always has been an individualist. He goes his own way indifferent to the fate of his neighbours ⦠The Romans will tolerate any form of government or any system of tyranny for a certain time. They will accept whatever profit may be derived from them. Many a time they rallied in the Piazza Venezia to cheer the Duce then return to their favourite café where they dammed Fascism for the rest of the day. Any form of discipline is repugnant to them and that is probably the main reason why the Germans who walk on the dotted line fail to understand or subdue them. The Roman emperors were psychologists, hence their policy of
panem et circenses
. The Italians ate the bread, enjoyed the games but have not succeeded in doing anything particularly noteworthy since the battle of Actium â¦
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(
MacWhite
, 3 April 1944)
In these final weeks of the German occupation the mood in the city was changing, as Mother Mary notes:
German women in Rome had orders to leave the city today; a significant detail if nothing else. They say that the Gestapo is going also; is it possible?
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(
Mother Mary St Luke
, 29 April 1944)
Every day we expect the invasion. Every day we listen to victory talk on the wireless. Every day we notice growing tension around us, and ill-concealed hopes of the arrival of the Allies. When will they come?
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(
Mother Mary St Luke
, 7 May 1944)
A real event took place today: we each had our monthly ration of 3? oz. of meat for dinner. It looked and tasted like donkey meat, but it may really have been something better.
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(
Mother Mary St Luke
, 8 May 1944)
She and the members of her congregation, together with the evaders they were housing, numbering about 40 in all, were facing the same difficult circumstances in relation to food supply as the rest of the residents of Rome. While her diary entry of 8 May shows that she had not lost her sense of humour in dealing with this deprivation, the evidence is even stronger in the next:
Our cat ate a rat. No, this is not turning into a kindergarten text book. He was just making history. The point is that he is, like most cats who live in houses, thoroughly spoiled. He is lordly, lazy and proud. He will only eat a mouse if it is young and tender. In the way of other eatables, what we get he shares. Today, however, his whole being rose up against a diet of macaroni, dried peas and rice, cooked in water with no cheese, no butter, no gravy, no milk. With grim determination he withdrew to the cellar, killed and ate a big rat â all except the tail, which we think he is going to appeal to the cook to make into soup for him. This historical fact that he was underlining is that food conditions are bad in Rome at present.
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(
Mother Mary St Luke
, 9 May 1944)
The authorities made other moves now to put O'Flaherty and Derry on the defensive. The period from mid-March to early May was very difficult and 46 men they had been catering for were either re-arrested or shot. In addition, the food situation was very difficult. Ninety per cent of supplies were now on the black market and prices had increased tenfold since November. The official ration of bread was about two slices per day. There were riots in bakeries and lorries carrying food were attacked. Strong pressure was also brought to bear on the Swiss Government by the German authorities and all aid from the Swiss Legation ceased. It had been made clear to the Swiss authorities that the Germans knew perfectly well they were assisting escaped Allied prisoners of war and, if this did not stop, their diplomatic staff would be arrested. This would have been very easy as the Swiss representatives were still in the Italian part of Rome. They had never relocated to the Vatican as it was unnecessary for them, being representatives of a neutral country. Then Ambassador von Weizsaecker made representations to the Heads of some of the religious orders in Rome, and Frs Borg, Madden and Buckley were confined to their houses. The organisation was now facing a lot of day-to-day difficulties. Frs Borg, Madden and Buckley were unable to be of assistance. Monsignor O'Flaherty was restricted to the Vatican and any departure from that arrangement represented the most incredible risk. Br Robert was in retirement and Joe Pollak was of limited assistance because of ill-health.
As a result of the increased level of partisan activity, the work was becoming more difficult. The number of German security police increased and Koch's gang became even more active. Feeding prisoners was now more difficult because of the increasing cost and the decline in availability of food. This increased pressure on the organisation caused Derry to issue instructions tightening up security. He reviewed recent events:
1. A large number (over forty) ex PW have been retaken in the last few weeks in ROME. Of these, twenty-eight were recaptured as a result of denunciations, and sixteen have been picked up in the street (of these sixteen, three were picked up in a drunken condition).
2. Current propaganda in ROME is that the Allies will not arrive before the Autumn. This is strong propaganda when coupled with the food shortage and with the static condition of the bridge-head and CASSINO fronts.
3. The Fascists and German SS have been, during the last four weeks, and still are far more active in the respect of the rounding up of Allied ex PW that any time since the Armistice.
As a result of this assessment of the situation he highlighted a number of conclusions.
1. Fascist gangs, working in collaboration with the Gestapo, are out to make a name for themselves by rounding up all ex PW in ROME.
2. The work of finding billets, paying padrones, contacting and supplying our men is more difficult than ever before.
3. The longer men remain cooped up in-doors, the more desperate becomes their attitude of mind and stimulated by a drink or two, the more likely they are to take ill-advised action.
He then went on to issue instructions.
1. No more ex PW are to be billeted in ROME. Any arriving in the city will be given financial assistance and advised to return to the country.
2. Ex PW must on no account leave their billets unless they receive warning of an imminent raid.
The practice of going from one billet to another to visit friends must cease forthwith
.
3. If forced to âmake a run' for it, ex PW must leave ROME and hide out in the country. Dashing to another billet only compromises additional people.
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In the second week of May the âSchoolmaster' was arrested. Fernando Giustini was a village schoolmaster in the village of Corchiano which is located in Viterbo province. He had lived as a child for a short time in the United States. During the War, he led a band of partisans in his region, who accomplished acts of sabotage against the military occupying the area, but who also were of assistance to people on the run, notably prisoners of war. In this latter aspect of his activities, he worked with O'Flaherty and his organisation. His link with O'Flaherty was through another Irish priest, Fr Clancy, who was then Director of the Collegio Marcantonio Colonna. The German authorities became aware of his work in Corchiano and carried out a house-to-house search. All members of the family were able to escape. They came to Rome where O'Flaherty and his colleagues managed to hide the mother, two sons and one daughter. Fernando continued his activity in Rome until such time as he was picked up as well. He also was tortured but did not disclose any information and eventually managed to make his escape.