Testimony of Ivan Rot, born in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, 1913, regarding his experiences in Yugoslavia, Italy and with the partisans in Yugoslavia
His childhood in a religious family; membership in the Hashomer Hatzair movement and the Communist party; work in Zagreb as a clerk; marriage, 1941.
German occupation; yellow badge; escape to Ljubljana which was under Italian occupation; detention and deportation to Alessandria, November 1941; status of "libero confine", an unrestricted inmate; good attitude by the population; escape to Rome after the Italian surrender; his wife is hidden in a monastery; witness is...
"It is 1944 and the Rome Escape Line, operated by a clandestine group known as The Choir, is smuggling more than 6,000 escapees from Nazi occupied Rome every year. Despite its successes, The Choir itself is riven with internal tensions and infighting. The organization risks falling apart, leaving thousands of escaped allies, Jews, and objectors stranded in a Rome that is ruled with vicious efficiency by the Nazis. Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty, the architect of the Escape Line and acknowledged leader of The Choir, broods inside the Vatican, seemingly paralyzed by what he sees as the intolerable risks of...