Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis (37 page)

NOTES

T
he history of the Monuments, Fine Arts, and Archives Section and the work of the Monuments Men has been an underresearched area of World War II. There are tens of thousands of books about World War II—thousands about just D-day and the Normandy landings. By comparison, very little has been written about this group of men and women and their accomplishments, which made researching this, my third book on the subject, both exciting and fulfilling.

The challenge of reconstructing events that took place almost seventy years ago has at times been daunting. Adding to the difficulty are incongruities in various individuals’ accounts of the same event. In instances of substance, I have provided a more expanded endnote to identify the differing accounts and, where possible, reconcile the disparity. Gathering the personal stories of the Monuments Men and their family members has been of primary importance. Even on the rare occasions when a complete chain of correspondence exists, as in the case of Deane Keller, whose family assiduously kept his wartime letters and cartoons, I have also interviewed others who knew Keller in order to provide a fuller perspective on his experience.

In contrast, no wartime letters home from Fred Hartt survived. In all likelihood, Fred’s wife, Peggy, destroyed them. Fortunately, however, Hartt did write a book in 1949 about his wartime experiences. Using that account, combined with his extensive reports during the war, I was able to reconstruct his experience overseas. Conveying a full picture of Hartt would have been impossible without the cooperation of his companion and partner of thirty-three years, Eugene Markowski.

Assessing SS General Karl Wolff and his role during these events posed a particularly difficult problem. Some have characterized Wolff as an unreliable witness, noting his penchant for self-promotion. This is at times not inaccurate. But the abundance of documentation in the OSS records about the general’s activity during Operation Sunrise, including secretly taped conversations after his arrest, postwar interrogation reports, sworn testimonies and affidavits, when combined with Wolff’s autobiography and the work of others who interviewed him—in particular, German biographer Jochen von Lang—provide great insight into this intelligent, clever man. Even accounting for Wolff’s extraordinary self-preservation skills, there is a consistency in the body of information that allowed me to describe his role in this story with confidence.

Most recently, distinguished German scholar Dr. Kerstin von Lingen has written two outstanding works on Wolff and his degree of guilt for war crimes. She, like British Professor Michael Salter, present compelling case studies involving Wolff’s wartime activities and his role during Operation Sunrise that put to rest any doubt that Wolff was shielded from prosecution by his friends among the Western Allies.

The absence of postwar strategic bombing surveys of Italy by the United States and Great Britain also caused some difficulty, forcing me to delve into individual reports of bombing missions and personal accounts of the pilots and bombardiers. Contemporaneous newspaper accounts proved enormously helpful in confirming what had taken place at ground level.

In this book I have tried to footnote every material fact. No authorial license has been taken with quotes. A detailed account of sources—archives, personal interviews, private files, and so on—follows.

AUTHOR’S NOTE

xiii
Cecil Pinsent
“Candidate’s Separate Statement,” Cecil Pinsent Application, Fellow, Royal Institute of British Architects.

xiv
“Life is full of mysteries”
Leonard Fisher, Eulogy for Deane Keller, 1992.

xiv
“I’m only sorry”
Salvatore Scarpitta (Monuments Man), interview with the author, 2006.

xiv
“I was a very critical young kid”
Ibid.

xv
“I’m going to come back . . . thank you brother”
Ibid.

EPIGRAPH

xxv
“In wartime when the thoughts”
Deane Keller, “Fine Arts Section,” Deane Keller Papers, MS 1685, Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University Library, Yale University, New Haven, CT, Box 19, Folder 10, 1.

PRELUDE

1
At half past midnight
Rosa Auletta Marrucci, ed.,
Bombe sulla città: Milano in guerra 1942–1944
(Milan: Skira, 2004), 70–71.

1
lunar eclipse
“Continuano i bombardamenti terroristici: il Duomo di Milano colpito,”
Corriere della Sera
, August 17, 1943, 1. Eclipse: http://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/5MCLEmap/1901–2000/LE1943-08-15P.gif.

1
hundreds of thousands
By the end of 1943 in Milan, 250,000 people were without homes, 300,000 were evacuated, 687 had died,113 were injured, and 65 percent of monuments were seriously damaged or destroyed. Of 273 protected buildings in the city, 183 had been damaged. Marrucci, ed.,
Bombe sulla città
, 70–72, 169.

2 * Marrucci, ed.,
Bombe sulla città
, 243. Fra Pietro Lippini OP, “Furono i Domenicani a salvarlo dopo il bombardamento dell’agosto 1943,” in
L’Ultima Cena di Leonardo da Vinci: Una lettura storica, artistica e spirituale del grande capolavoro
(Milan: Dominican Friars of the Church of Santa Maria delle Grazie, n.d.).

2
“go early in the morning”
Ludwig Heinrich Heydenreich,
Leonardo: The Last Supper
(London: Allen Lane, 1974), 16.

3
“Verily I say unto you”
Matthew 26:21 (King James Bible).

3
“the movement of men”
Heydenreich,
Leonardo: The Last Supper
, 57.

3
The bomb had slammed
Mario Frassineti et al.,
Santa Maria delle Grazie
(Milan: Federico Motta, 1998), 114–15; Marrucci, ed.,
Bombe sulla città
, 245.

3
relocated his fellow Dominicans
Lippini, “Furono i Domenicani a salvarlo dopo il bombardamento dell’agosto 1943,” 15.

3
The explosion reduced the east wall
Marrucci, ed.,
Bombe sulla città,
243–44.

4
three years to complete
Frank Zöllner,
Leonardo Da Vinci, 1452–1519
(Cologne: Taschen, 2003), 53.

4
almost the entire width
The Refectory measures 116.47 feet (35.5 m) by 29.1 feet (8.87 m) and its height is 37.73 feet (11.5 m). Heydenreich,
Leonardo: The Last Supper,
16.

4
Too often, such efforts
Pinin Brambilla Barcilon and Pietro C. Marani,
Leonardo: The Last Supper
, trans. Harlow Tighe (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1999), 21.

4
“There is no work”
Fernanda Wittgens, “Il restauro in corso del Cenacolo di Leonardo,” in
Atti del convegno di Studi Vinciani; indetto dalla unione Regionale delle Province toscane e dalle Università di Firenze, Pisa e Siena 15–18 gennaio 1953
(Florence: Leo Olschki, 1953), 42.

4
The bomb blast had also dislodged
Lippini, “Furono i Domenicani a salvarlo dopo il bombardamento dell’agosto 1943,” 16.

4
A summer rainstorm could easily
Soprintendenza ai Monumenti di Milano, “Relazione sui provvedimenti presi dopo il 16 agosto 1943 dalla Soprintendenza ai Monumenti di Milano,” May 1945. National Archives and Records Administration (hereafter NARA), RG 331, 10000/145/97.

5
Allies landed in Sicily
Rick Atkinson,
The Day of Battle: The War in Sicily and Italy, 1943–1944
(New York: Henry Holt, 2007), 75.

5
“Never, never, never believe any war”
Winston S. Churchill,
My Early Life
(New York: Touchstone, 1996), 232.

SECTION I: INCEPTION

7
“Works of art are not”
“Preservation of Works of Art in Italy,” 8 May 1944. NARA, M1944, Roll 63.

Chapter 1: Changing of the Guard

9
Scheduling the July 19, 1943, meeting
Albert N. Garland and Howard McGaw Smyth,
US Army in WWII: Sicily and the Surrender of Italy
(Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1965), 242.

9
surrendering in such numbers
Atkinson,
The Day of Battle
, 115.

9
Commander-in-Chief South
Kerstin von Lingen,
Kesselring’s Last Battle: War Crimes Trials and Cold War Politics, 1945–1960
(Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2009), 31.

9
“half-clothed Italian soldiers”
Ralph Francis Bennett,
Ultra and Mediterranean Strategy
(London: William Morrow, 1989), 225.

9
one million German soldiers
Max Hastings,
Inferno: The World at War 1939–1945
(New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2011), 315.

10
“most catastrophic defeat”
Anthony Beevor,
Stalingrad: The Fateful Siege
(New York: Penguin Books, 1998), 398.

10
The meeting . . . Feltre
F. W. Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship: Mussolini, Hitler and the Fall of Italian Fascism
(London: Phoenix Press, 1962), 400–402.

10
Mein Kampf
The second volume of
Mein Kampf
was published on December 11, 1926. Othmar Plöckinger,
Geschichte eines Buches: Adolf Hitlers “Mein Kampf”: 1922–1945
(Munich: Oldenbourg Verlag, 2006), 121.

10
“profoundest admiration for”
Adolf Hitler,
Mein Kampf
, trans. Ralph Manheim (New York: Houghton Mifflin, First Mariner Books, 1999), 681.

10
“remarkable self-control”
“ITALY: Benito’s Birthday,”
Time
, August 6, 1923.

10
“like the one that Providence”
Pope Pius XI, “Vogliamo Anzitutto,”
Libreria Editrice Vaticana
, 13 febbraio 1929. On February 11, 1929, Pius XI and Mussolini signed the Lateran Pacts. Two days later, on February 13, 1929, the pope spoke those words during a speech to students and professors at the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Milan. The official Vatican website has scripts of speeches, http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/pius_xi/speeches/documents/hf_p-xi_spe_19290213_vogliamo-anzitutto_it.html.

10
He considered Hitler’s racial theories
Greg Annussek,
Hitler’s Raid to Save Mussolini: The Most Infamous Commando Operation of World War II
(Cambridge, MA: Da Capo Press, 2005), 45.

10
By November 1 of that year
It was delivered in Milan six days after the birth of the Rome–Berlin Axis, at the Piazza Duomo from 3:55 p.m. to 4:25 p.m. before 250,000 people. Benito Mussolini,
Scritti e discorsi dell’Impero: Novembre 1935–XIV
—
4 Novembre 1936
—
XV
(Milan: Hopeli Editore, 1936–XV), 200.

11
Food riots . . . unemployment
Stephen Harvey, “The Italian War Effort and the Strategic Bombing of Italy,”
The Italian War Effort
70, no. 228 (February 1985), 36.

11
“tore their sons from the plough.”
Salvatore Satta,
De profundis
(Milan: Adelphi, 1980), 113.

11
“The sacrifice of my country”
Garland and Smyth,
US Army in WWII
, 242.

11
11 a.m. . . . “determine the fate of Europe.”
Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship
, 402–3.

11
Sometime after 11:30 a.m.
Cesare De Simone,
Venti angeli sopra Roma: I bombardamenti aerei sulla Città Eterna: 19 luglio e 13 agosto 1943
(Milan: Mursia, 1993), 248. Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship
, 404, says around noon.

12
“At this moment the enemy”
Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship
, 404.

12
with barely a pause
De Simone,
Venti angeli sopra Roma
, 248.

12
After Mussolini failed . . . “give us liberty of action?”
Deakin,
The Brutal Friendship,
407–8.

12
Although Mussolini . . . attacks would be seen by Romans
Ibid.

12
appeared over Rome at 11:03 a.m.
De Simone,
Venti angeli sopra Roma
, 143.

12
An enormous formation
Denis Richards and Hilary St. G. Saunders,
Royal Air Force: 1939–45: The Flight Avails
(London: Seven Hills Books), 318; Harvey, “The Italian War Effort and the Strategic Bombing of Italy,” 40. Note that De Simone,
Venti angeli sopra Roma
, 160, says there were 930 planes. The official Italian report said, “between 500 and 600.”

12
virtually the entire
Wesley Frank Craven and James Lea Cate,
Army Air Forces in World War II, Vol. II, Europe: Torch to Pointblank, August 1942–December 1943
(Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1949), 463.

12
From an altitude of more than twenty thousand feet
De Simone,
Venti angeli sopra Roma
, 8, 143–44.

12
two million pounds
“Headquarters Northwest African Air Forces A-3 Section Operations Bulletin No. 5, Period from 1 August to 31 August 1943,” Lauris Norstad Papers, Eisenhower Presidential Library, Box 12, p. 70. Littorio and Ciampino Airdromes: Headquarters Northwest African Air Forces Operational and Intelligence Summary Number 150 for Period ended 1800 Hours, 20th July, 1943, Norstad Papers, Box 12.

12
seventy seconds
De Simone,
Venti angeli sopra Roma
, 8, 143–44.

13
Plumes of smoke . . . bomb Rome.
Harold H. Tittmann Jr. and Harold H. Tittmann III,
Inside the Vatican of Pius XII: The Memoir of an American Diplomat During World War II
(New York: Doubleday, 2004), 163.

13
More than two thousand people . . . most were civilians
The Fascist government changed the data immediately and on Wednesday, July 21, communicated that civil casualties totaled 176, plus 1,659 injured, while on Ambrosio’s desk there was already a report that the deaths were at least 2,000. On the morning of Friday, July 23, the newspaper
Il Messaggero
published a short communication from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, saying that the deaths were 717, and 1,599 injured. On that same night, the General Commando of the Carabinieri had sent to the government a short report stating that the number of victims “cannot be considered inferior to 2,000 or 2,200 people.” Soon after, “757 registered corpses” became the “official” number of casualties for the bombing of July 1943. Cesare De Simone believes the number of people killed during the bombing of July 19 were between 2,800 and 3,200, probably closer to around 3,000 or more; the injured were likely to be around 11,000 or 12,000. De Simone,
Venti angeli sopra Roma
, 262–64.