Saving Italy: The Race to Rescue a Nation's Treasures from the Nazis (2 page)

MAIN CHARACTERS

Note: Ages listed are as of 1943.

MAJOR CHARACTERS

Captain Deane Keller, Monuments Man for U.S. Fifth Army.
Age 42. Born: New Haven, Connecticut. Portrait painter and Professor of Art at Yale. Keller volunteered so he could serve his country and put to use his knowledge of Italy. He left behind his beloved wife, Kathy, and young son, Dino. Introverted, sensitive, and extremely hardworking, Keller often felt alone and isolated in the army.
[Deane Keller Papers, Manuscripts & Archives, Yale University]

Lieutenant Fred Hartt, Monuments Man for Tuscany.
Age 29. Born: Boston, Massachusetts. Art historian. A rising star in his field. He worked as an assistant and cataloguer at Yale University Art Gallery before joining the military in 1942. Hartt was a go-getter, sometimes impulsive and na
ï
ve but passionate about Italy and his job.
[Walter Gleason Collection]

General Karl Friedrich Otto Wolff, Supreme Leader of all SS Troops and Police in Italy.
Age 43. Born: Darmstadt, Germany. For six years he worked in Hitler’s headquarters as Chief of the Personal Staff to Reichsführer-SS Heinrich Himmler. After Italy’s capitulation in September 1943, Wolff became the de facto leader of Mussolini’s Social Republic. He often capitalized on his persuasive personality and the personal favor of Hitler.
[ullstein bild—Walter Frentz]

SUPPORTING CHARACTERS

Giovanni Poggi, Superintendent of Galleries of Florence, Arezzo, and Pistoia.
Age 63. Born: Florence, Italy. He organized the evacuation of art treasures from the city’s museums to repositories in the Tuscan countryside. Poggi was one of the most esteemed superintendents in Italy, having served in a similar capacity during World War I. [
Arianna and Elisa Magrini, and Edizioni Polistampa, Florence
]

Allen Dulles, Chief of the Office of Strategic Services Mission in Switzerland.
Age 50. Born: Watertown, New York. In 1942, he assumed a post in Bern, Switzerland, with the title of Special Assistant to the Minister. This job was in fact cover for his activities as spymaster for the OSS.
[Central Intelligence Agency]

Don Guido Anelli, Catholic Priest and Partisan Leader.
Age 31. Born: Vigalone, Italy. Anelli was one of the first organizers of the armed resistance against the Germans and Fascists in the Province of Parma.
[Sergio Giliotti Collection]

SS Colonel Alexander Langsdorff, Head of the German Kunstschutz in Italy.
Age 45. Born: Alsfeld, Germany. An accomplished archaeologist who also worked at the Berlin State History Museum, Langsdorff joined Himmler’s personal staff in 1935. His work protecting the art and monuments of Italy often conflicted with his devotion to the SS.
[Mareile Langsdorff Claus Collection]

Captain Alessandro Cagiati, Italian American Intelligence Officer of the OSS.
Age 34. Born: Rome, Italy. He immigrated to the United States in 1934. During the war, Cagiati arrived in Sicily alongside the first Allied soldiers. He served as a liaison between the OSS and the Italian resistance.
[Anthony Cagiati and Alessandro Cagiati]

MONUMENTS MEN

Lieutenant Commander Perry B. Cott, USNR.
Age 34. Born: Columbus, Ohio. Associate Director and Curator of European and Asiatic Art at the Worcester Art Museum, Massachusetts. Cott first worked in naval intelligence, and was one of the earliest Monuments officers assigned to Sicily in 1943.
[Pennoyer Papers, Department of Art and Archaeology, Princeton University]

Captain Edward “Teddy” Croft-Murray.
Age 36. Born: Chichester, England. Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum. Croft-Murray first served in the Admiralty and the War Office. He arrived in the Mediterranean Theater via Tizi Ouzou, Algeria.
[Walter Gleason Collection]