Rome, May 5 (BUS): Rome’s San Giuschino Basilica is filled with intricate frescoes, mosaics and stained-glass windows, but perhaps its true masterpieces are the charcoal frescoes hidden in the attic.
The drawings were done by one of 35 men—including anti-fascist Jews, Christians, and army defectors—who had been hiding in an attic during the Nazi occupation of Rome in World War II, some for six months.
Father Ezio Marcelli discovered the drawings in 1984, 40 years after Allied soldiers liberated Rome from Nazi occupiers in June 1944. He remembered that he had heard from an older priest that people were hiding in the church during the war and began searching the diocese archives for clues, Reuters reported .
“I managed to find this cache. We made this extraordinary discovery,” he said. “I was very emotional.”
“The meaning of what happened here, the people being persecuted, being chased to death, still has real relevance today,” Marcelli said.
Despite his ninety years, Marseille fearlessly climbs the outer spiral staircase leading to the attic.
“We must always be vigilant and vigilant so that no one can do such evil deeds again,” he said, escorting visitors through a secret passage that was once covered to hide the people inside from possible Nazi raids.
The three older drawings on the walls, made in charcoal pencil, show Jesus with a crown of thorns, a Madonna and a child, and a modern man sitting on a simple chair with his head in his hands. This is likely a photo of a fugitive.
Although they were not signed, Marcelli said it was almost certain that Luigi Di Simone made it because archives also contain sketches on papers signed by him.
Marcelli also found an old cigarette case, playing cards, matches, an empty wine bottle, and a newspaper copy in Rome in 1944 with an anti-Semitic article – a time capsule from one of Italy’s darkest periods.
The men were hidden between November 3, 1943 and June 7, 1944, averaging 15 at any one time. Many remained throughout. A nunnery across the street housed the women.
The fugitives entered and exited the attic through a rose window, usually under cover of darkness. The entrance to the attic was blocked off to prevent detection.
Through the window, they received food, clothing, and handed their waste to their mother-in-law, among whom were a priest, a nun, and several lay members of the parish. Notes were passed to and from family members through a small hole in the ceiling.
All involved swore to a secrecy pact and developed a flashing-light signal system to keep men silent in the event of a possible raid by the Nazis, who were targeting religious institutions.
In 1995, Israel honored its wartime parish patron, Father Antonio Dresino, and her secular animal, Pietro Listini, as righteous among the nations for saving the Jews.
HF