Other Forces

The Vatican Scarlet Pimpernel.

(trying again) Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, Vatican diplomat and great Irishman, who headed a network that concealed some 4,000 Jews and Allied servicemen during the German occupation of Rome, 1943-1944. Most of those concealed by the network were still alive and uncaptured when American forces liberated Rome. Msgr. O'Flaherty made use of the neutral status of the Vatican, diplomatic contacts (with the embassy of neutral Ireland, and even with the German ambassador) and a wide range of disguises (as he moved around outside the Vatican) to further his "resistance" work. He ended up on a Gestapo "hit list" (literally) but was neve "hit". After the liberation, he worked to secure humane treatment for German prisioners, and was a regular visitor to his imprisoned former enemy, Obersturmbannfuhrer Herbert Kappler, German chief of security during the occupation. Kappler converted to Roman Catholicism in 1959 - not, I think, entirely unconnected. Hugh O'Flaherty died in Ireland, and is buried in Caherciveen, County Kerry. Ar dheis Dé a anam - may his soul rest at God's right hand. Best regards, JR.