The Lost Boys
Page 44
17 ‘Across the valley’ Matthias Breit, Head of the Municipal Museum, Absam, conversation with author, January 2017
18 ‘On 18 April’ Leopold Dollonek, Tiroler Tageszeitung, 9 February 1949
19 ‘“Mystically inclined”’ speech to NSDAP Parteitag, 6 September 1938, cited in Staudenmaier, op. cit., p. 207
20 ‘According to their files’ Dollonek, op. cit.
21 ‘His flight’ Staudenmaier, op. cit., p. 384
22 ‘“Hitler was evidently”’ Peter Padfield, Hess, Hitler and Churchill: The Real Turning Point of the Second World War – A Secret History (Icon Books, 2013), p. 231
23 ‘The following day’ cited in Staudenmaier, op. cit., p. 392
24 ‘The result was’ ibid., pp. 390ff.
25 ‘“Suddenly, police cars”’ Hauschka, op. cit., p. 70
26 ‘Soon after’ Heinz Blaumeiser, conversation with author, February 2017
27 ‘Within months’ Matthias Breit and Peter Steindl, conversations with author, January 2017
28 ‘After lying vacant’ information supplied by Heinz Blaumeiser
29 ‘The suggestion is’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2017; Frau Buri, Head Nurse, Wiesenhof Orphanage, July 1945, private family archive
30 ‘The local families’ Peter Steindl, conversation with author, January 2017
31 ‘For the rest of their lives’ ibid.
32 ‘“No one ever”’ conversation with author, January 2017
33 ‘Some of their descendants’ Trude Egger, resident of the hamlet of Wiesenhof, conversation with Heinz Blaumeiser, October 2017
34 ‘A local woman’ ibid.
35 ‘In the weeks after’ testimony of Frau Buri, Head Nurse, Wiesenhof Orphanage, July 1945, private family archive
36 ‘Conrad, the four-year-old’ ibid.
37 ‘Their angelic looks’ ibid.
38 ‘One day’ ibid.
39 ‘She tried’ ibid.
3
1 ‘“Secret. AHQ DAF”’ Desert Air Force Operations Record Books, Commands, 1 January 1945–31 May 1945, AIR 24/444, The National Archives
2 ‘Five days previously’ Robert Foster, unpublished memoir, undated, private family archive
3 ‘This was the fourth’ Desert Air Force Operations Record Books, op. cit.
4 ‘He himself’ conversation with Mike Foster, Robert Foster’s son, September 2016
5 ‘At forty-seven, his career’ ibid.
6 ‘While the Allies’ obituary, Group Captain Westlake, Daily Telegraph, 26 January 2006
7 ‘The major difficulty’ ‘Operation “Bowler”’, AIR 23/1819, The National Archives
8 ‘The planes took off’ ibid.
9 ‘So accurate were the pilots’ obituary, Group Captain Westlake, op. cit.
10 ‘One was from’ Air Marshal Guy Garrod to Sir Norman H. Bottomley, 6 May 1945, AIR 20/3216, The National Archives
11 ‘Foster peered’ Mike Foster, conversation with author; notes of a conversation between David Forbes-Watt and Air Marshal C. L. Falconer, stationed with Foster at Brazzà (and subsequently Air Officer Commanding, DAF), undated, private family archive
12 ‘In the last days of the Italian campaign’ Desert Air Force Operations Record Books, op. cit.
13 ‘Seeing the photographs’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2016
14 ‘Back in April’ Robert Foster, op. cit.
15 ‘Seeing it all’ ibid.
16 ‘Yet, as he walked’ Forbes-Watt and Falconer, op. cit.
17 ‘As he passed’ Robert Foster, op. cit.
18 ‘The only time’ ibid.
19 ‘Following years of’ Major ‘Tommy’ Macpherson (Colonel Sir Ronald Thomas Stewart Macpherson, CB, MC & Two Bars), Commander, SOE Coolant Mission, Situation Reports, May–June 1945, HS 6/852, The National Archives
20 ‘Already, Yugoslav’ ibid.
4
1 ‘“Total of unidentified”’ Sir Noel Charles to Foreign Office, 16 May 1945, cited by David Stafford in Mission Accomplished: SOE and Italy 1943–1945 (Vintage, 2012), p. 331
2 ‘At Ziracco’ Major ‘Tommy’ Macpherson, SOE Coolant Mission, Situation Reports, May 1945, HS 6/852, The National Archives
3 ‘“… a ditch”’ ibid.
4 ‘“… perhaps the most”’ ibid.
5 ‘Garibaldi commanders’ ibid.
6 ‘“Zivio Stalin”’ David Stafford, Endgame 1945 (Little, Brown, 2007), p. 345
7 ‘“Citizens of Udine”’ Macpherson, op. cit.
8 ‘“… witches’ cauldron”’ Geoffrey Cox, Race for Trieste (William Kimber, 1977), p. 158
9 ‘Besides flying sorties’ ADV HQ DAF, Operations Record Book for Month of April/May 1945, Summary of Events, AIR 24/444, The National Archives
5
1 ‘One looked’ conversation between David Forbes-Watt and Air Marshal C. L. Falconer, stationed with Foster at Brazzà (and subsequently Air Officer Commanding, DAF), undated, private family archive
2 ‘Straight away’ ibid.
3 ‘Nicknamed’ Angelo D’Orsi, ‘Vittorio Emanuele III’, Il Manifesto, 19 December 2017
4 ‘Pushing it’ Forbes-Watt and Falconer, op. cit.
5 ‘One face’ ibid.
6 ‘Among the’ ibid.
7 ‘As Foster was leafing’ ibid.
6
1 ‘He came’ Detalmo Pirzio-Biroli, Finestre e Finestrelle su Brazzà e Altrove (Campanotto Rifili, 2005), pp. 78–9
2 ‘The family’s name’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2016
3 ‘Then, shaking’ conversation between David Forbes-Watt and Air Marshal C. L. Falconer, stationed with Foster at Brazzà (and subsequently Air Officer Commanding, DAF), undated, private family archive
4 ‘One night’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2016
5 ‘An American’ Forbes-Watt and Falconer, op. cit.
6 ‘Then, quietly’ ibid.
7 ‘Crossing the garden’ ibid.
8 ‘To begin with’ David Forbes-Watt and Fey Pirzio-Biroli, manuscript notes, private family archive
9 ‘It was where’ ibid.
10 ‘Their first night’ ibid.
11 ‘Looking around’ Forbes-Watt and Falconer, op. cit.
12 ‘It was where’ Robert Foster, unpublished memoir, undated, private family archive
13 ‘Along the’ Private Papers of J. R. T. Hopper, Documents 6342, Imperial War Museum
14 ‘They came’ Forbes-Watt and Pirzio-Biroli, op. cit.
15 ‘Despite all’ Foster, op. cit.
16 ‘Where were’ ibid.
17 ‘Moreover’ ibid.
7
1 ‘At exactly’ Il Messaggero, 19 October 1937
2 ‘The ovation’ ibid.
3 ‘… “the totally destructive tyranny”’ speech by Himmler on taking up his appointment as Chief of the German Police, 18 June 1936, Prussian Interior Ministry, cited in Peter Longerich, Heinrich Himmler (Oxford University Press, 2012), p. 204
4 ‘That summer’ Longerich, op. cit., p. 242
5 ‘Taking his cue’ Il Messaggero, 19 October 1937
6 ‘… “a nation of murderers and pederasts”’ cited in Eugen Dollmann, With Hitler and Mussolini: Memoirs of a Nazi Interpreter (Skyhorse Publishing, 2017), p. 49
7 ‘“They are fanatical”’ Christopher Duggan, Fascist Voices: An Intimate History of Mussolini’s Italy (Vintage, 2013), p. 282
8 ‘… “mould, mice and basements”’ Il Messaggero, 19 October 1937
9 ‘It was almost nine’ Ilse von Hassell, unpublished memoir, undated, private family archive
10 ‘“I advised him”’ Dollmann, op. cit., p. 54
11 ‘An orchestra’ Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
12 ‘… “his only method”’ Duchess of Sermoneta, Sparkle Distant Worlds (Hutchinson, 1947), p. 134
13 ‘“his sharp, pale”’ Carl J. Burckhardt, quoted in Eugen Dollmann
, op. cit., p. 96
14 ‘“We Italians”’ quoted in Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
15 ‘“The Ambassador looked”’ Dollmann, op. cit., p. 45
16 ‘… “politics, intrigue”’ ibid., p. 97
17 ‘“We were just wondering”’ Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
18 ‘“When I insisted”’ Ulrich von Hassell, Römische Tagebücher und Briefe 1932–1938 (Herbig, 2004), p. 207
19 ‘… “interests lay principally”’ quoted in Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
20 ‘“Unpleasant and treacherous”’ Galeazzo Ciano, Diary 1937–1943 (Phoenix Press, 2002), p. 63
21 ‘… he was taught absolute’ This was US intelligence chief Allen Dulles’s assessment of Hassell’s upbringing. See his introduction to The Von Hassell Diaries 1938–1944 (Doubleday, 1947).
22 ‘“A German nobleman”’ Gottfried von Nostitz, quoted by Richard Overy, introduction to The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries (Frontline Books, 2011), p. ix
23 ‘… “trenchant humour”’ Hans Bernd Gisevius, ibid.
24 ‘Hitler, however’ Dulles, op. cit., p. x
25 ‘By the autumn’ Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
26 ‘Earlier that year’ ibid.
27 ‘Sometimes he used’ Ulrich von Hassell, op. cit., pp. 19–20
28 ‘From a political’ ibid., p. 194
29 ‘“There is no limit”’ ibid.
30 ‘To Hassell’s embarrassment’ Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
31 ‘“Göring will come”’ Ulrich von Hassell, op. cit., p. 195
32 ‘“He found our car”’ ibid.
33 ‘“His remarks”’ ibid., p. 195
34 ‘“It’s just a toy”’ Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
35 ‘“These were the thoughts”’ Ulrich von Hassell, op. cit., p. 196
36 ‘“Pour moi”’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, October 2018
37 ‘… “crude and brutish”’ Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
38 ‘… “full authority to scupper”’ ibid.
39 ‘… “block-building”’ ibid.
40 ‘… “dangerous adventure”’ ibid.
41 ‘“I took advantage”’ Galeazzo Ciano, op. cit., p. 19
42 ‘The professor’ Richard Beyler, ‘Werner Heisenberg, German Physicist and Philosopher’, Encyclopaedia Britannica, britannica.com
43 ‘During the meeting’ Ilse von Hassell, op. cit.
44 ‘“Politics and diplomacy”’ Ulrich von Hassell, op. cit., p. 209
45 ‘On the night of 9 November’ ‘The Night of Broken Glass’, website of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
46 ‘“I am writing”’ The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries (Frontline Books, 2011), p. 9
47 ‘“Conversations with”’ ibid., p. 10
8
1 ‘He was working’ Peter Hoffmann, The History of German Resistance 1933–1945 (McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1988), p. 123
2 ‘“For several months”’ The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries (Frontline Books, 2011), p. 167
3 ‘“He carefully closed”’ The Von Hassell Diaries 1938–1944 (Doubleday, 1947), p. 256
4 ‘“For the time being”’ ibid.
5 ‘“When I started”’ ibid.
6 ‘“The memory”’ ibid., p. 258
7 ‘“According to”’ ibid.
8 ‘“I get fed up”’ ibid., p. 290
9 ‘Every soldier’ Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 251
10 ‘Additionally’ Gregor Schöllgen, A Conservative Against Hitler (St Martin’s Press, 1991), p. 116
11 ‘“Nothing is”’ Ulrich von Hassell’s diary, 16 June and 20 September 1941, cited in Schöllgen, op. cit., p. 116
12 ‘To convince’ Schöllgen, op. cit., pp. 78–9
13 ‘Believing that Hitler’s’ Andrew Roberts, ‘The Holy Fox’: A Biography of Lord Halifax (Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1991), p. 184
14 ‘“Ridiculous stale”’ quoted in Schöllgen, op. cit., p. 84
15 ‘In their eyes’ ibid., p. 93
16 ‘At the beginning’ ibid., p. 86
17 ‘“I am sure”’ ibid.
18 ‘In January 1942’ ibid.
19 ‘“In Germany”’ Richard Lamb, Churchill as War Leader (Bloomsbury, 1991), p. 292
20 ‘“If the generals”’ The Von Hassell Diaries 1938–1944, op. cit., p. 281
21 ‘… “some sort of”’ ibid., p. 286
22 ‘… “the whole building”’ ibid.
23 ‘Assassination, however’ Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, Secret Germany: Claus von Stauffenberg and the Mystical Crusade Against Hitler (Jonathan Cape, 1994), p. 33
24 ‘He wore a’ Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 278
25 ‘When Hitler’ Baigent and Leigh, op. cit., p. 33
26 ‘“In spite of”’ The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries, op. cit., p. 186
27 ‘“Hitler’s prestige”’ The Von Hassell Diaries 1938–1944, op. cit., p. 286
28 ‘While Germany’ Baigent and Leigh, op. cit., p. 1
29 ‘“The last few weeks”’ The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries, op. cit., p. 185
30 ‘“For the first time”’ ibid.
31 ‘“Sad to say”’ ibid., p. 187
32 ‘“They have undoubted”’ ibid., p. 194
33 ‘His family’ Michael Balfour, Withstanding Hitler in Germany, 1933–1945 (Routledge, 1988), p. 124
34 ‘“You, Tresckow”’ Offizierschule des Heeres, Tresckow monographie
35 ‘… “both duty and honour”’ Hoffmann, op. cit., p. 265
36 ‘… “ready to act”’ The Ulrich von Hassell Diaries, op. cit., p. 143
37 ‘… “the spark”’ Fabian von Schlabrendorff, The Secret War Against Hitler (Hodder & Stoughton, 1966), p. 227
38 ‘All two dozen’ Baigent and Leigh, op. cit., p. 23
39 ‘… “it was not seemly”’ ibid.
40 ‘As Schlabrendorff’ Fabian von Schlabrendorff, op. cit., p. 231
41 ‘“Dropping the idea”’ ibid.
42 ‘“With mounting tension”’ ibid., p. 236
43 ‘… “a state of indescribable”’ ibid.
44 ‘“The reason”’ ibid., p. 237
45 ‘Here, Gersdorff’ Baigent and Leigh, op. cit., p. 25
46 ‘As the acid’ ibid.
10
1 ‘Yet, as one man’ Umberto Paviotti, Udine sotto l’occupazione Tedesca, edited by Tiziano Sguazzero (Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione, 2009), p. 5
2 ‘But then, on’ Iris Origo, War in Val D’Orcia: An Italian War Diary, 1943–1944 (Jonathan Cape, 1947), p. 61
3 ‘Twenty contadini’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2017
4 ‘The relationship’ Sydel Silverman, Three Bells of Civilization: The Life of an Italian Hill Town (Columbia University Press, 1975), p. 61
5 ‘A wealthy heiress’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2017; Idanna Pucci, The Trials of Maria Barbella (Vintage, 1997), pp. 13–15
6 ‘Cora’s progressive’ Mariangela Toppazzini, ‘Un Americana Innamorata Del Friuli’, Friuli Colinare, undated
7 ‘Recognizing that’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2017
8 ‘In 1906’ Corrado Pirzio-Biroli, conversation with author, November 2017
9 ‘“I arrived”’ Paviotti, op. cit., p. 4
10 ‘“Attention!”’ ibid., p. 6
11 ‘“Orders to civilians!”’ ibid., p. 7
12 ‘Hitler had been’ Rupert Colley, Mussolini: History in an Hour (William Collins, 2013), e-book
13 ‘It left him’ ibid.
14 ‘Radioing for assistance’ ibid.
15 ‘The Germans were’ Paviotti, op. cit., pp. 11–12
16 ‘“I did not live”’ Rosanna Boratto, quoted in Una Disubbidienza Civile: Le Donne friulane di fronte all’8 Settembre 1943 (Udine, Comitato Resistenti, 2013), p. 46
17 ‘“Any Allied”’ Paviotti, o
p. cit., p. 15
18 ‘“Generally, people are”’ ibid., pp. 8–11
19 ‘Before fleeing’ ibid., p. 18
11
1 ‘For the population’ Vatican questionnaire, parish of Santa Margherita archives, 1939
2 ‘The poverty’ Giorgio Botto, whose ancestors were tenant farmers at Brazzà, conversation with author, November 2017
3 ‘“What is the percentage”’ Vatican questionnaire, op. cit.
4 ‘“The time has come”’ Jane Scrivener, Inside Rome With the Germans (Holloway Press, 2007), p. 62
12
1 ‘Previously attached’ G. H. Bennett, The Nazi, the Painter and the Forgotten Story of the SS Road (Reaktion Books, 2012), p. 61
2 ‘“In the period”’ Operational Situation Report, USSR, No. 178, Einsatzgruppen Reports: Selections from the Dispatches of the Nazi Death Squads’ Campaign Against the Jews, July 1941–January 1943, ed. Y. Arad, S. Krakowski and S. Spector (Holocaust Library, 1989), pp. 308–9
3 ‘At the beginning’ Bennett, op. cit., p. 62
4 ‘“Going past”’ Umberto Paviotti, Udine sotto l’occupazione Tedesca, ed. Tiziano Sguazzero (Istituto Friulano per la Storia del Movimento di Liberazione, 2009), p. 362
5 ‘“There are about”’ ibid., pp. 369–70
6 ‘“The Germans are”’ Fey Pirzio-Biroli to Santa Hercolani, undated, private family archive
7 ‘In Povoletto’ Paviotti, op. cit., p. 352
8 ‘“Mussolini”’ ibid., pp. 360–3
9 ‘“At four in”’ Fey Pirzio-Biroli to Santa Hercolani, 16–17 May 1943, private family archive
10 ‘“The storm”’ ibid.
11 ‘“It’s unimaginable”’ Paviotti, op. cit., p. 375
12 ‘“Some weapons”’ ibid.
13 ‘“I was speechless”’ Walter Ceschia (ed.), Dal Diario di Kitzmüller: Giorni di Caino 1943–1945 (Studio Effe, Udine, 1977), p. 21
14 ‘“At about 8 o’clock”’ Vittorio Zanuttini, quoted in Ceschia, op. cit., pp. 44–5
15 ‘“At about half past nine”’ ibid.
16 ‘“The boys arrived”’ ibid.
17 ‘“They were”’ ibid.