The Vatican Pimpernel: The Wartime Exploits of Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty
Brian Fleming
Language: English
Pages: 224
ISBN: 1905172575
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty is an unsung hero in his native Ireland. During the German occupation of Rome from 1942 to 1944, he ran an escape organization for Allied POWs and civilians, including Jews. He placed thousands in safety and was known as `the Pimpernel of the Vatican'. When the Allies entered Rome he had saved over 6,000 lives.
Extraordinary Affairs. The Allies General Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander. Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, senior American officer. The Nazis/Fascists Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kappler, Head of the Gestapo in Rome. Pietro Caruso, Fascist Chief of Police. Pietro Koch, Chief of the Fascist Political Police Squad. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, Supreme German Army Commander in Italy. The Observers Mother Mary St Luke, an American nun living in Rome who published her diaries
Extraordinary Affairs. The Allies General Harold Alexander, Supreme Allied Commander. Lieutenant General Mark W. Clark, senior American officer. The Nazis/Fascists Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kappler, Head of the Gestapo in Rome. Pietro Caruso, Fascist Chief of Police. Pietro Koch, Chief of the Fascist Political Police Squad. Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, Supreme German Army Commander in Italy. The Observers Mother Mary St Luke, an American nun living in Rome who published her diaries
high regard, that he had achieved great things. She also knew that he was still working both for German and Italians who were in trouble with the Allied authorities and for refugees living in various locations around Rome. Each Saturday, he delivered food and provisions to these people. All these were paid for by the Pope and O’Flaherty regularly told her that the Pope had always been a great support to him. Gallagher, an Irish journalist, records a cloud over O’Flaherty’s career after the War.
practise it. Clearly, that is how he viewed his work for escapees and evaders. The rest of us, however, must conclude that he fulfilled his mission with extraordinary conviction, ingenuity, courage and compassion for his fellow man. Indeed this was a great and good man. References Chapter 1 1. Aidan O’Hara, I’ll live till I die: The story of Delia Murphy, p. 53. 2. Ibid. p. 52. 3. Ibid. p. 53 4. Ibid. p. 95. 5. National Archives, Department of Foreign Affairs papers. 6. Ibid. 7.
among Roman society generally. Many of these he would have got to know when he became an active member of the Rome Golf Club. It seems there was a regulation at that time which prohibited priests in the Diocese of Rome from playing golf but this did not seem to bother either O’Flaherty or his immediate superior Ottaviani. Among the many people he got to know then were some members of the old Roman noble families who proved to be of great assistance to him later in his work. Vittoria, the Duchess