This is a tale of Italian Resistance during WW II. Unlike nearly all History on Fire episodes, this is not a story I researched in books. It’s a much more personal one—these are my grandparents’ experiences. The starring role goes to my grandmother, Liana Germani, who as a teenager was a combat partisan active against the Fascist regime and the Nazi occupation.
Read more[RERUN] EPISODE 61: Raiders in the Night
“We are all ghosts now. But once we were men.” — Anonymous POW from Cabanatuan camp
“Never in history had the United States Army been called on to rescue such a large number of POWs from so deep in enemy territory.” — William Breuer
“We were in the best shape of our lives, and with this mission we understood why he had driven us so hard.” — Alvie Robbins speaking about Henry Mucci’s physical training
“As far as we were concerned, they were gods.” — Bob Body about the Rangers who rescued him and his fellow POWs.
“Nothing in this entire campaign has given me so much personal satisfaction.” — General MacArthur
“I’ll be grateful for the rest of my life that I had a chance to do something in this war that was not destructive. Nothing for me can ever compare with the satisfaction I got from helping to free our prisoners.” — Robert Prince
This is the tale of one of the most daring missions in the history of WWII. After being defeated by the Japanese in 1942, by 1945 American forces were back in the Philippines ready to retake the islands. But their very success may have spelled doom for some survivors of the Bataan Death March, who had spent nearly three years as prisoners of the Japanese. Plenty of evidence, in fact, suggested that Japanese guards were ready to kill them all rather than letting them be freed. The only way to stop this imminent massacre was for a newly formed unit of Rangers, along with Filipino guerrilla fighters, to travel 30 miles behind enemy lines, face off with numerically superior forces, and rescue the POWs. By every logical metric, this had suicide mission written all over it. And ye, the Rangers and guerrilla, all volunteered. Rarely are war stories feel-good stories. But this may be the exception to the rule.
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EPISODE 94: The Last War Chief
“Reflecting upon the chiefs I had known, I realized that here had never been one who was very well off. Poverty was part of a chief’s obligations…” — Frank Bird Linderman
“While we painted ourselves the drums kept beating, and our women sang war-songs. No man can feel himself a coward at such a time. Every man that lives will welcome battle while brave men and women sing war-songs. I would have willingly gone alone against our enemies that day.” — Plenty Coups
“To be alone with our war-horses at such a time teaches them to understand us, and us to understand them. My horse fights with me and fasts with me, because if he is to carry me in battle he must know my heart and I must know his or we shall never become brothers. I have been told that the white man, who is almost a god, and yet a great fool, does not believe that the horse has a spirit. This cannot be true. I have many times seen my horse’s soul in his eyes.” — Plenty Coups
"The story of Joseph Medicine Crow is something I've wanted to tell for 20 years." — Ken Burns
“I felt good. I was a Crow warrior. My grandfathers would have been proud of me.” — Joe Medicine Crow
Lakota history has been the subject of many episodes of History on Fire. Today, however, we’ll see history through the eye of their traditional enemies, the Crow. Part of the episode will cover the history and culture of the Crow nation up to the late 1800s. The other part will move into the 1900s and follow the tale of Joe Medicine Crow, the last man to achieve the status of war chief of the Crow Nation thanks to the coups he counted during WWII against the Nazi. The fact that Joe Medicine Crow’s story has not been made into a movie is a crime. I can’t fix that, but at least I can dedicate a podcast to him.
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EPISODE 80: The Patriotic Mobsters
“Lucky will not be pleased to hear that you have not been helpful.” — Joe Adonis
“The outcome of the war appeared extremely grave. In addition, there was the most serious concern over possible sabotage in the ports. It was necessary to use every possible means to prevent and forestall sabotage and to prevent the possible supplying of and contact with enemy submarines.” — Captain Roscoe C. MacFall
“There was peace on the waterfront. It was kept with rough methods. But that's what the Navy asked us to do and that's what the Navy go.” — Meyer Lansky
Just because Lucky Luciano was one of the most famous mobsters of the 20th century doesn’t mean he was not a patriot ready to help the Allies win the war. Well… that’s one way to look at it. Otherwise, we’d have to conclude that during WWII, the government made a deal with the biggest Mafia boss of the times, releasing him from prison in exchange for his cooperation. Back then the government was in a bind—it wanted to protect American shores from sabotage at the hands of Nazi sympathizers, but it had only limited control on the docks. American ports belonged to the Mafia. And so the logical conclusion was that, for the sake of the war effort, the government jumped in bed with organized crime. This is the tale of the marriage of convenience between the American Navy and Lucky Luciano.
Thank you to Alexander Von Sternberg from History Impossible for his help in crafting this episode.
EPISODE 68: My Grandma and Her Bombs: A Story of WWII
“Women must obey… My opinion of women’s role within the state is against any kind of feminism. In our state, women must not count.” — Benito Mussolini
“Yes, I participated in the actions. I usually had the task of carrying the weapons and would hand them to our shooters. As soon as they had used them, I’d get them back from them—still hot.” — Liana Germani
“I was mostly afraid of torture had they captured me, of the terrible suffering on the way to the concentration camps. Death seemed simple, something quick, liberating. Fear was a constant element of our daily lives.” — Liana Germani
This is a tale of Italian Resistance during WW II. Unlike nearly all History on Fire episodes, this is not a story I researched in books. It’s a much more personal one—these are my grandparents’ experiences. The starring role goes to my grandmother, Liana Germani, who as a teenager was a combat partisan active against the Fascist regime and the Nazi occupation. What I remember of her... there was a constant hint of sadness and pessimism hanging around her. It may have to do with the fact that during WW II, she found her boyfriend murdered--cut into pieces by fascists. She spent the rest of her teenage years smuggling guns & bombs, and doing what she could to kill them all.
Honorable mention also to my paternal grandparents—in particular my grandfather Stelio Bolelli, who found his way into fighting alongside Allied troops all the way through the Gothic Line.
In the course of this episode we’ll talk about a brief history of Fascism, DMX & the Matteotti murder, the collusion between fascist leaders and Sinclair Oil, the Badoglio government, the Nazi occupation, the massacre of St. Anna di Stazzema, guerrilla in the streets of Milan, gender roles in fascist Italy, my grandma’s friends being executed, PTSD, carrying bombs & smuggling weapons, my grandfather avoiding execution, the Gorla massacre, and much, much more.