Overview

During the German occupation of Rome from 1943-1944, Kerryman Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty ran an escape organisation for Allied POWs and civilians, including Jews. He built a network of contacts and safe locations and his helpers included communists, British soldiers, the singer Delia Murphy and many others. The work was dangerous. Safe within the Vatican State, he regularly ventured out in disguise to continue his mission, which earned him the nickname of the Pimpernel of the Vatican. Kappler, the Gestapo chief in Rome, ordered him captured or killed. When the Allies entered Rome in June 1944, O’Flaherty and his colleagues had saved over 4,000 lives.