Saving Italy Author: | Language: English | ISBN:
B00CMFJR2S | Format: EPUB
Saving Italy Description
When Hitler's armies occupied Italy in 1943, they also seized control of mankind's greatest cultural treasures. As they had done throughout Europe, the Nazis could now plunder the masterpieces of the Renaissance, the treasures of the Vatican, and the antiquities of the Roman Empire. On the eve of the Allied invasion, General Dwight Eisenhower empowered a new kind of soldier to protect these historic riches. In May 1944 two unlikely American heroes-artist Deane Keller and scholar Fred Hartt-embarked from Naples on the treasure hunt of a lifetime, tracking billions of dollars of missing art, including works by Michelangelo, Donatello, Titian, Caravaggio, and Botticelli.
- Audible Audio Edition
- Listening Length: 11 hours and 50 minutes
- Program Type: Audiobook
- Version: Unabridged
- Publisher: Recorded Books
- Audible.com Release Date: May 6, 2013
- Whispersync for Voice: Ready
- Language: English
- ASIN: B00CMFJR2S
This book is a followup to author Robert Edsel's earlier work The Monument Men, which told the story of a small group of scholar-soldiers dedicated to saving the cultural treasures of countries embroiled in World War II. Most of the secrets of the great art heists were revealed in that book, although this book too has valuable aspects. One of them is to read the book not only for its art history, but also for its detailed rendering of the military campaigns that took place.
The consensus among historians today, a camp exemplified by the great historian Frederick Taylor, is that Hitler had total total control of the German military high command. One of the interesting side debates in Edsel's new book Saving Italy, is how fractured the German leadership really was. For example, we learn that Admiral Wilhelm Canaris, head of German military intelligence, along with several of his adjutants, were fervent anti-Nazis who didn't merely stand on principle, but actively acted to undermine Hitler's plans at least with regard to the Italian campaign. Canaris, author Edsel maintains, warned the Italians at very high levels of Hitler's hatred of Pope Pius XII, and his desire to raid the Vatican and capture not only documents, but the Pontiff as well.
But whereas Eisenhower gave specific instructions that the great cathedral in Cologne Germany was to be spared the effects of high altitude bombing, in Italy, Pope Pious at the outset received only general assurances from FDR regarding Rome's holy places. Author Edsel's book makes clear that limiting the destruction would be on a best efforts basis.
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