Tuesday, April 27, 2004

This is fascinating on a number of fronts. First, Mussolini's old mansion will be converted into a Holocaust museum. Second, the villa sits on top of Jewish catacombs from the 3rd and 4th century, some up to 6 miles long. Wow. (Found on Nextbook)

Mussolini's former home to be turned into a Roman Holocaust museum

The estate that was Benito Mussolini's favourite home during his decades as Italy's dictator will house a museum devoted to commemorating the Holocaust experienced by Rome's Jews....

Deep beneath the Villa Torlonia, where Mussolini lived, is an enormous network of Jewish catacombs, some six miles in length, dating back to the third and fourth centuries, which contain some of the best-preserved paintings and inscriptions of the community. After the start of the war, Mussolini used some of them to construct an air-raid shelter for himself and his family.


Interestingly for those that accuse the Catholic Church of not protecting Jews:

Of all countries touched by the Nazis' extermination programme, Italy's record is the least shameful. About 85 per cent of the country's 45,000 Jews survived, many thousands protected by Catholic priests and others in churches and monasteries around the country.

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