Rating: 
Summary: Circus Maximus
Review: Don't let the title of this book confuse you. Mr. Katz uses the word "battle" in its broad sense- this is not a work primarily concerned with the nuts-and-bolts of the Allies attempt to wrestle Rome away from the Germans. There is some military history- the landing at Anzio and the "lost opportunity" to move quickly up the underdefended route to Rome are neatly summarized. But Mr. Katz is mainly concerned with personalities, diplomacy and morality. He focuses on a few of the partisans, so that we come to know them intimately. We go along on several of their "missions" and learn about both fear and bravery. One key mission, setting off a bomb on a street known to be part of the daily route followed by some German policemen, results in the deaths of 32 Germans- and results in the infamous reprisal known as the Ardeatine Caves massacre. Hitler was so angered by the attack on the policemen that he wanted 30-50 Italians, per each German killed, to be executed. "Cooler heads" prevailed and managed to get the ratio down to 10-to-1. Lists were drawn up to figure out who the unlucky 320 people would be- they were largely made up of Italians already in jail awaiting execution or life imprisonment for previous "crimes." As you might expect, when these numbers proved insufficient the Germans became less selective- they also wound up miscounting and wound up executing 5 extra people. A thread running throughout the book is the behind-the-scenes maneuvers by the Vatican and Pope Pius XII to remain neutral- so that Rome would not be devastated and also so that Vatican City and its inhabitants would be left alone. Mr. Katz fairly presents the Pope's position. He also clearly condemns the Pope and the Vatican hierarchy for a failure to provide moral leadership. A consistent failure to "speak up" allowed the Germans to act with impunity- to kill Roman Jews and non-Jews alike. Would "speaking up" have made any difference? We'll never know the answer to that question- but Mr. Katz is persuasive when he argues that the Pope had an obligation to condemn brutality and inhumanity- and he failed to do so in any forceful manner. Another interesting aspect of the book is the military politics that were played in the final push to Rome. American General Mark Clark was determined that the Americans would liberate Rome. He felt that our troops had earned that right after the casualties suffered at Anzio. Clark felt that British General Alexander was trying to manipulate strategy so that the British could get to Rome first. In the end, Clark prevailed. Mr. Katz manages to juggle all of the storylines without losing sight of the big picture. He also drops a bombshell in the epilogue- but I can't give that away. Suffice it to say that it involves some more unsavory behavior by Vatican officials.
Rating: 
Summary: ... and most of them got away
Review: I have just finished reading Robert Katz's "The Battle for Rome: The Germans, the Allies, the Partisans, and the Pope," (New York, 2003, Simon & Schuster).
The book is primarily the story of how Rome was finally taken by the Allies on the day before D-Day in Normandy, long after the successful Anzio landing from which Gen. John Lucas did not break out while the roads to Rome were open.
It tells the horrible story of the German massacre of 355 Romans in the Ardeatine Caves and how the Germans responsible all escaped the death sentences pronounced over them for the greatest World War II atrocity committed in Italy and how ABC's Sam Donalson tracked down one of the killers, Capt. Erich Priebke, in South America, to which he had fled thanks to the U.S. Army's Rat Line for war criminals.
But throughout the book, there are glimpses of the OSS's Peter Tompkins who had to overcome the fact that two others claimed to be the chief OSS leader in Rome while various seedy types betrayed each other and Tompkins. Eventually, just before the 88th U.S. Infantry Division entered Rome on the eve of D-Day in Normandy, Tompkins had a radio for contact with OSS, but one of his seedy challengers had the crystals. So Tompkins had to leave Rome on the eve of liberation. (Katz omits mention of the 88th Blue Devils in his text, but does credit them in a cutline for a picture.)
To make the book readable, Katz keeps returning to the story of Paulo and Elena (conspiratorial names), two of the greatest Italian Resistance heroes, both of whom took part in the ambush of singing SS men in the Via Rasella that led to the Ardeatine Massacre.
Katz also does a great job in refuting the Vatican claim that Pope Pius XII did much to save the Jews of Italy and shows that the roundup of Rome's Jews (with only one survivor) took place under the Pope's balcony and with his silence.
Rating:
Summary: ... and most of them got away
Review: I have just finished reading Robert Katz's "The Battle for Rome: The Germans, the Allies, the Partisans, and the Pope," (New York, 2003, Simon & Schuster).
The book is primarily the story of how Rome was finally taken by the Allies on the day before D-Day in Normandy, long after the successful Anzio landing from which Gen. John Lucas did not break out while the roads to Rome were open.
It tells the horrible story of the German massacre of 355 Romans in the Ardeatine Caves and how the Germans responsible all escaped the death sentences pronounced over them for the greatest World War II atrocity committed in Italy and how ABC's Sam Donalson tracked down one of the killers, Capt. Erich Priebke, in South America, to which he had fled thanks to the U.S. Army's Rat Line for war criminals.
But throughout the book, there are glimpses of the OSS's Peter Tompkins who had to overcome the fact that two others claimed to be the chief OSS leader in Rome while various seedy types betrayed each other and Tompkins. Eventually, just before the 88th U.S. Infantry Division entered Rome on the eve of D-Day in Normandy, Tompkins had a radio for contact with OSS, but one of his seedy challengers had the crystals. So Tompkins had to leave Rome on the eve of liberation. (Katz omits mention of the 88th Blue Devils in his text, but does credit them in a cutline for a picture.)
To make the book readable, Katz keeps returning to the story of Paulo and Elena (conspiratorial names), two of the greatest Italian Resistance heroes, both of whom took part in the ambush of singing SS men in the Via Rasella that led to the Ardeatine Massacre.
Katz also does a great job in refuting the Vatican claim that Pope Pius XII did much to save the Jews of Italy and shows that the roundup of Rome's Jews (with only one survivor) took place under the Pope's balcony and with his silence.
Rating:
Summary: Katz' Battle for Rome
Review: Just finished Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome. Had to carry on through Epilogs, sources and notes. What an enjoyable experience. Reads like an adventure. He writes with clear authority, great charm and undeniable sureness for detail. For me, Katz put many bits and fragments of Roman history that I only half understood into a comprehensive and inclusive whole. Every line rings true. I particularly liked his interweaving of such diverse perspectives, recollections, places, fragments and events into a cogent chronology. CONGRATULATIONS to the author of such a fine book!
Rating:
Summary: Roma, Citta Aperta
Review: Just finished Robert Katz, The Battle for Rome. Had to carry on through Epilogs, sources and notes. What an enjoyable experience. Reads like an adventure. He writes with clear authority, great charm and undeniable sureness for detail. For me, Katz put many bits and fragments of Roman history that I only half understood into a comprehensive and inclusive whole. Every line rings true. I particularly liked his interweaving of such diverse perspectives, recollections, places, fragments and events into a cogent chronology. CONGRATULATIONS to the author of such a fine book!
Rating: 
Summary: pulp-(non)fiction
Review: Let's not confuse the innately dramatic and often profound events surrounding the liberation of Rome with the skills of this storyteller. Even a hack like Katz can't keep the story from being deeply involving at times. That said, it's a pity that this book isn't any better than this. He relies heavily on the work of professional historians, condensing and often distorting their findings; his 'original research' is never really something that no one has examined before, but rather material no one has sensationalized before. His highly rhetorical moral outrage is rarely worthy of note: most of the time the targets are too easy, more of the 'fish in a barrel' sort, leaving Katz's grand condemnations seeming a bit too self-satified and false. The prose and structure are essentially those of a 1955-67 American war movie; the language is so trite, I actually laughed aloud several times.
I am always interested in books about the war and particularly those involving Italy. But I was hoping for popular history a notch above this, something like Anthony Beevor's solemn and well-written book on the fall of Berlin. This, by comparison, was a bit cheesy and low brow.
Rating:
Summary: pulp-(non)fiction
Review: Let's not confuse the innately dramatic and often profound events surrounding the liberation of Rome with the skills of this storyteller. Even a hack like Katz can't keep the story from being deeply involving at times. That said, it's a pity that this book isn't any better than this. He relies heavily on the work of professional historians, condensing and often distorting their findings; his 'original research' is never really something that no one has examined before, but rather material no one has sensationalized before. His highly rhetorical moral outrage is rarely worthy of note: most of the time the targets are too easy, more of the 'fish in a barrel' sort, leaving Katz's grand condemnations seeming a bit too self-satified and false. The prose and structure are essentially those of a 1955-67 American war movie; the language is so trite, I actually laughed aloud several times.
I am always interested in books about the war and particularly those involving Italy. But I was hoping for popular history a notch above this, something like Anthony Beevor's solemn and well-written book on the fall of Berlin. This, by comparison, was a bit cheesy and low brow.
Rating:
Summary: The Eternal City in the Crosshairs
Review: My father was one of the soldiers who captured Rome in June 1944, so when I saw this book I knew that I wanted to read it. I found it very well-written, and it covered quite a bit of the history of the Nazi occupation of the Italian capital in 1943 & 1944. The emphasis was mainly on the partisan activity within the city itself, and the Allied military planning and actions take somewhat of a back seat, but it is important to note that the inside activity was extremely important to the eventual safe delivery of the city without the potential wholesale destruction that many people feared. Puis XII is shown to have attempted to steer a middle course between the occupiers and the Allies, to the point of compromising his moral authority as Pope. There were many things he could have, and probably should have, done, but he didn't, and it's difficult at this remove in time to attempot to stand in his shoes and judge his actions. In my humble opinion, he was found wanting, but that's an entirely different issue. The book is excellent, and worth reading!
Rating:
Summary: The Batle for Rome
Review: Reading The Battle for Rome by Robert Katz, I felt as though I was an observer in an operating theatre...
the doctors, nurses, etc. replaced by the Partisans, Nazis, Allies and the Pope. Moment by moment you are a witness to the courage and resolve of the Partisans, the hesitancy and intolerable silence of the Pope, the enigmatic maneuvering of the Allies and the treachery and atrocities of the Nazis.
The evidence that Katz places before us is indisputable yet surreal, as is the Holocaust in its entirety. It is not an easy read for those of us who have never been aficionados of WW II narratives, but it is a book, once started, impossible to put down, once completed, impossible not to recommend.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Historical Work
Review: Robert Katz is to be congratulated and thanked for reminding us what happend when the Germans occupied Rome from late 1943 to Spring 1944. Hundreds of Italians, Jews and others lost their lives before the Allied armies were able to help, due to the Pope's unwillingness to take a stand in defense of the people, and because of his fear of Communism and concern for the safety of the Papal State. This book should be read by everyone interested in the history of World War II. It is so well written, it reads like fiction. Alex J. Rosenberg
|
