The Brooklyn Eagle (June 3, 1944)
Editorial: Fate of Rome up to Nazis as Allied armies close in
While the fall of Rome is inevitable, the conditions under which the first Axis capital will pass the possession of Allied armies cannot now be foreseen. Berlin has announced to the German people that “the war is on the threshold of Rome” and that “fresh decisions” are being contemplated by the German High Command. Upon these decisions, which will govern the course of action to be followed by the Allies, will depend the fate of the Eternal City, which the civilized world hopes to see spared the ravages which would be inescapable if it were transformed into a battleground.
A decision to hold and defend Rome, to fight in the ruins of its ancient temples, its venerable shrines and of its great cathedrals and churches, would reflect the spirit of vandalism which has been expressed so eloquently by the Germans in this and other wars. Such a decision would be inspired by vengeance and vindictiveness, by a yearning to punish the Italians for their failures of support and allegiance, also by the hope that the onus of the crime of Rome’s ruin would fall upon the Allies.
The Germans cannot hope to hold Rome. Their divisions are depleted by a mounting toll of dead and 15,000 prisoners in the hands of the Allies, and they have been served with the grim notice that the demands of the impending invasion preclude the possibility of reinforcements.
All of the advantages of strong positions in mountainous territory and of interior lines, which are being pounded mercilessly by Allied air forces, have been lost. The alternatives of destruction or “further systematic withdrawals,” as they are described by German commentators, face the German High Command for its decision.
In its explanation to the German people that reverses in Italy are attributable to inability to feed reserves to the front, there is implicit a recognition of the fact that Rome cannot be held. This being the case, the Germans may do the sensible thing and make a wholesale withdrawal of their armies to the mountains of the north rather than invite the destruction of the city by holding and defending it.
Regardless of what the German decision may be, there is basis for the confidence, expressed by the Catholic archbishops and bishops of the United States in their message to Pope Pius XII, that “Allied ingenuity in strategy” will prove itself and “enrich our victory by saving Rome from destruction or further damage.”
This purpose is in the mind of President Roosevelt and is influencing the decisions of Allied military leaders in the field. If humanly possible, the center of Christian faith and of world culture will be spared the ravages that have become, through Nazi genius for the tactics of barbarism, so symbolical of modern warfare.