There is an unconfirmed rumour that Pope Pius XII signed an undated act of resignation, to be made public in case the Vatican was invaded and he was abducted. Hitler was seriously thinking of that and had to be dissuaded from it. This ceased to be an issue, of course, when the Americans came.
I know something of what the atmosphere in Rome was like from Sept.10, 1943 - when the Germans came - to June 6, 1944, when they fled. My father was a six-year-old child in Rome at the time, and while he never spoke of it, I know for a fact that he still has nightmares about Nazi troops. Now ask yourself how bad the situation must have been for a child of six who never had anything to do with it (though his uncle, who lived in the North, was later abducted and murdered in Dachau) to be scarred for life.
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I know something of what the atmosphere in Rome was like from Sept.10, 1943 - when the Germans came - to June 6, 1944, when they fled. My father was a six-year-old child in Rome at the time, and while he never spoke of it, I know for a fact that he still has nightmares about Nazi troops. Now ask yourself how bad the situation must have been for a child of six who never had anything to do with it (though his uncle, who lived in the North, was later abducted and murdered in Dachau) to be scarred for life.