The Cities of North Italy
After June, 1944, threats to Rome were alleviated by the shift of the war front to North Italy. But the shift created a new concern: the safety of cities famous for their art treasures, cities such as Florence, Ravenna, Bologna and a hundred smaller towns in the line of battle. At this time, too, Allied artillery was trained on the industrialized cities and the ports of the North: Turin and Milan, Venice and Genoa. From these heavily populated areas, appeals came to the Pope, imploring his intervention to avert disaster.
It is true that the Allies had given assurances that artistic monuments would be respected. Experts on Italian art and architectural treasures had conducted serious studies, identifying targets to be treated with deference. But the experience of Montecassino showed that military commanders on the spot could easily disregard the recommendations of their own art-specialists-in-uniform. Therefore, such assurances as that made by the British minister on May 13, 1944, were not greeted with much elation or confidence. Minister Sir d'Arcy Osborne, in a note to the Vatican, said: "The Holy See may therefore rest assured that, in so far as the use of Allied air and ground forces are concerned, every possible precaution is being taken to preserve Italian historic and artistic monuments from the effects of military operations."
From the German side, the mood to spare such cities as Florence appeared more than positive. On June 1, the German embassy told the Vatican that Florence had been declared an "open city". Sienna was to be treated in the same manner, with German troops to be routed around the center of the city. The Secretariat of State was pleased to communicate the German declaration to the American charge, Harold H. Tittmann, Jr., and to the British minister, Sir d'Arcy Osborne. And on June 20, it sent a more formal note to the two Allied diplomatic missions, as well as to the German embassy and to the nuncio in Berlin, in which it expressed the earnest prayer that the "incomparable" towns of Tuscany, such as Florence, Pisa, Siena, Lucca and Arezzo, not become theaters of war. On June 29, Msgr. Tardini noted that Nuncio Orsenigo's reply came from Berlin, citing the Foreign Ministry, caused him to suspect that German plans for safeguarding Florence and other towns only concealed a strategy for disengaging the Germans militarily. In fact, Orsenigo informed his superiors that the Germans wanted the Allies to wait from six to 18 hours before entering the cities abandoned by the German forces. "Who knows, on the contrary," recorded the worried and suspicious Tardini, "that they don't have the diabolical plan to bring about (or at least to provoke) their destruction?"
In the meantime, reports on the sufferings of the civilian population in the path of war came to the Vatican in increasing numbers. On July 15 via the nuncio in Switzerland, by wireless - the Cardinal Archbishop of Bologna, Giovanni, Battista Nasalli Rocca di Corneliano, supported an appeal from the mayor of that city. Noting that Bologna had been bombarded 15 times, with 1,600 victims and 3,000 factories destroyed, he asked that Bologna be declared an open city; he affirmed that Marshall Kesselring was favorable.
Bologna, of course, was an industrialized city, which made it an ideal target for Allied bombing. Assisi, however, was not, so the Holy See could write with more confidence on behalf of the city of St. Francis. It was gratified to receive the Allied diplomats' assurance that "no permanent headquarters or other installation which can justify bombing by our enemies will be established there."
On August 2, the Secretariat of State sent to the German embassy an appeal from the Archbishop of Siena, Msgr. Mario Tacabelli, urging that the Germans declare Sienna "a city of hospitality". On August 9, a similar note went to the British legation on behalf of Bologna as an "open city". The official military reply was that the Commander in Chief "cannot enter into any undertakings, such as declaring cities to be `open,' which might prejudice the success of his operations and so lead to unnecessary loss of life among the troops for whom he is responsible." On October 21, the Secretariat of State informed the Allied diplomats that, according to information from the Cardinal Arch-bishop of Bologna, all preparations had been made to make Bologna a "city of hospitality".
Milan, also heavily bombarded, appealed through the Vatican to the Allies for special consideration. On October 24, the Secretariat of State transmitted to the British legation an appeal that at least the center of the city, in which the Duomo and a large hospital were located, be spared. "The Secretariat of State of His Holiness," said the note, "cannot but make its own the request of the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, and trusts that the Allied commanders will not fail to adopt in good time all possible preventive measures in order that such a famous monument and the lives of so many innocent people may be spared." The Allied reply was, of course, non-committal. "Every precaution" would be taken, consistent with military operations.
In the closing months of 1944, the Secretariat of State sought special consideration for Venice, Imola and Verona, with a similar lack of results. The Germans said Venice could not be declared a "city of hospitality" because it was in the war zone. Finally, in response to a request that the Vatican intercede on behalf of the city of Vercelli, Msgr. Tardini explained how useless such appeals were — "that the requests of the Holy See that certain places not become battlefields have received only vague and unreassuring replies…."