The Battle for Rome: The Germans, the Allies, the Partisans, and the Pope, September 1943-June 1944 - Hardcover

Katz, Robert

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0743216423 ISBN 13: 9780743216425

Publisher: Simon & Schuster, 2003

Synopsis

Traces the Italian campaign during World War II, noting such events as Italy's unexpected surrender to the Allies, Hitler's attack on Rome, the Italian partisan uprising, the German round-up of Italian Jews, and the pope's efforts to preserve the Vatican State. 30,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author

Robert Katz is the author of twelve previous books, including the international bestseller Death in Rome. His writing has appeared in numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, Esquire, and Military History Quarterly. A fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation and a member of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, he lived in Rome for nearly twenty years and now lives in Tuscany in Italy.

Reviews

Expanding upon his classic account of the 1944 Ardeatine Caves massacre, Death in Rome, Katz presents a vivid, well-researched history of German-occupied Rome, from the fall of Mussolini in 1943 to the Allied Liberation 10 months later. Katz weaves several biographical histories into his narrative, devoting particular attention the experiences of five individuals: Herbert Kappler, an SS officer who began his tenure in Italy intending to save the Jews of Rome from Auschwitz but ended up presiding over the killing of 335 men and boys at the Ardeatine Caves; Peter Tompkins, the 24-year-old, bilingual OSS spy who, as the primary Allied representative in Rome, tried to make a useful network out of the brave individuals and quarreling factions residing in the Eternal City; Paolo and Elena, a partisan couple who orchestrated the most effective attack on German police troops; and Pope Pius XII, who, in Katz's telling, appears as a cold-hearted politico whose insistence on the Vatican's neutrality endangered thousands of lives in Rome. Combined with Katz's broad historical knowledge and his personal experiences living in Rome, these narratives create an engrossing portrait of a confused, tragic period of Italy's history.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This narrative history describes the Eternal City at a key time of struggle--the dark year of German occupation between the overthrow of Mussolini in 1943 and liberation by the Allies in 1944. Four parties wrestle for Rome: the ruthless yet wary German occupiers, the Holy See in self-preservation mode, a gutsy band of patriotic students with homemade explosives, and the U.S. Fifth Army under Mark Clark, the first general since the sixth century to take Rome from the south. Its horrific climax is an account of the Via Ardeatina massacre, in which more than 300 Roman civilians were shot in reprisal against the resistance. Based overwhelmingly on U.S. intelligence files, Katz's history navigates the elaborate Roman underground of spies and counteragents, and even unearths a few surprises, like a key telegram about the Jewish genocide, addressed to Hitler, intercepted and sent in translation to Roosevelt. Curiously, one appendix also details Katz's legal difficulties regarding his last book. This is challenging research presented fluidly, and Katz's fascination with a key moment for a fascinating city shines through. Brendan Driscoll
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Edition details

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Publication date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0743216423
• ISBN 13: 9780743216425
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 448