All Jews who had been arrested by the Germans in Rome and held in the infamous Regina Coeli prison there are now free men, as are all political prisoners in the liberated Italian capital, the British press reported today.
Jewish organizations here were mapping out plans today to send representatives to Rome to contact Jewish leaders there for the purpose of restoring Jewish communal life and Jewish activities in the liberated part of Italy.
London newspapers carry reports from their correspondents in Rome describing how Italians rushed to the gates of the prison, as soon as the Allied armies entered Rome, and demanded the immediate liberation of all Jewish prisoners who had been held in two special wings. Others presented the prison administration with a list of non-Jewish political prisoners and asked for their immediate release.
Estimating that several hundred Jews were set free, the correspondents give detailed descriptions of the scenes at the gates of the prison where the liberated Jews were met by Italian friends. Many of the Italians who witnessed the release rushed to the families of the Jews so as to be the first to bring the news of their liberation.
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