Documentary History

In September 1943, the German army marched into Rome, beginning a 9-month battle for control of the "Eternal City". It was the Allied aim to preserve the Holy City's sacred institutions and treasures. So the staggering human cost before the city's military conquest is nearly incomprehensible. The special is based on the book The Battle for Rome--its author Robert Katz was subject to five penal proceedings over the years for his contention that fear of Communism produced a Faustian pact between the Vatican and the occupying Germans. The research draws on interviews with participants inside the city, and also on previously secret documents from Italian, German, Vatican, OSS and CIA archives. We hear from ordinary Roman citizens, informants, opportunists, spies, double agents, and Germans who risked death in efforts to save Jews. We see Rome as the hotbed of assassination, intrigue, treason, and bravery that it was as we look unflinchingly at unresolved controversies.