MUSEO STORICO DELLA LIBERAZIONE
It was set
up in 1954 into four apartments of the building which, in the 268 days of the
Nazi occupation of Rome (11 September 1943 - 4 June 1944), was used as a prison
by the command of the security police
The
detention cells are still as they were left by the fleeing Germans and originally
occupied the entire building and are now visible in two of the four apartments
that the museum comprises
The
building was built in the late thirties of the twentieth century for Prince
Francesco Ruspoli who wanted to make apartments for rent
Eventually
he rent it all to the German Embassy for its cultural offices and, during the
fateful 268 days, it became a site of terror and death
The SS
closed the windows with grates and brick and, under the command of the infamous
Herbert Kappler, about 2,000 human beings in total were locked in tiny cells
stacked like animals and tortured brutally
The prison
at Via Tasso in Rome was regarded as “the antechamber of death”
After the
Liberation of Rome the apartments were occupied by homeless people and in 1950
the Princess Josepha Ruspoli donated four of them to the Italian State with the
obligation to turn them into a Liberation Museum to house objects and documents
belonging or relating to victims
In the
night between 22 and 23 November 1999 the Museum was the subject of a bomb
attack of anti-Semitic nature. It did not cause disastrous consequences and it
only caused damage to the windows of the apartments
Conference
room, Library and Archives
During the
war this floor was used as the office of the Nazis
Prison
itself: the rooms have remained, even in detail, exactly as the Germans,
fleeing from Rome, left them. Same wallpaper, same windows bricked up, same
grating on the doors of the various cells, same electrical system
CELL 1
Memories of
the 335 Italians killed at the Fosse Ardeatine on March 24, 1944
CELL 2
Isolation
cell with walls covered in graffiti made by prisoners
“Together
with the upper floor, it is perhaps one of the most significant and poignant
rooms in this museum. These rooms were the only two of the whole prison without
wallpaper, and had plastered surfaces. More importantly, within them the
prisoners were segregated individually. These, back from being questioned,
alone with their anxieties and their tortured pain, carved on the wall,
laboriously, with nails or fingernails, prayers, literary memories, trying to
keep the sense of passing time, words of comfort for those who remained,
important information for those who would continue to fight, the last wills
waiting for death to which many were condemned” (Web site of the Historical
Museum of Liberation - www.viatasso.eu)
CELL 3
It honors
the seventy-seven Italians shot at Fort Bravetta
CELL 4
It is
dedicated to the massacre of La Storta on June 4, 1944, the day of the
Liberation of Rome, when fleeing Germans shot fourteen prisoners they had
brought with them including the Italian MP Bruno Buozzi
Cell 5
“For the
duration of World War II he served in the operations office of the supreme
command, of which he later became the head; on July 27, 1943, as a colonel, he
was called to lead the secretariat of Badoglio, from which it split in not
agreeing on his methods of leading the negotiations for the armistice. After
September 8 he was at the side of the general Calvi di Bergolo as chief of the
civil affairs bureau of the open city of Rome. Wanted by the Germans, he
escaped capture and dedicated to the organization of the first clandestine
military center in Rome” (Enciclopedia Treccani)
“He was
tortured for days. The executioners tore his teeth one by one and then, just to
make him talk, they continued with his nails. They broke his bones and he was
whipped and beaten with chains. He resisted heroically, and even the Germans
were impressed by his courage: 'Frankly, we were moved' Kappler said later”
(Anthony Majanlahti and Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi)
The
colonel, an authentic hero, one of the most courageous in the long history of
Italy, while being aware of names and important facts, he never gave them out
and he was brutally murdered at the Fosse Ardeatine
His name
would deserve to be present in all the books of Italian history for school
children
CELL 11
It was one
of the torture chambers. On display there are prints and posters of the time
CELL 12
Isolation
cell, like the one on the second floor. It holds the messages of those who were
imprisoned
CELL 13
Collection
of newspapers printed clandestinely
In a
showcase there are the three-pointed nails used by partisans against German
columns of trucks
There is also
a touching and precious heirloom: a loaf of bread on which a prisoner before
execution, recorded the words “coraggio mamma” (courage mother)
CELL 14
Flyers
printed clandestinely
The first
flag that waved on the tower of the Town Hall on Capitoline Hill at the liberation of Rome, on June 4, 1944
ROOM 1
Dedicated
to the Jewish community of Rome, the oldest in Europe, dating back at least to
the second century BC
1,022 Jews,
including 221 children were deported to Auschwitz. Only seventeen returned
alive, including a woman, and no children
