Mario DiMarco, long a police marshal in Rome and a hero of the Italian underground in World. War II, who enabled hundreds of Jews and other anti-Fascists to escape from Nazi persecution, was the guest of honor today at a luncheon arranged by a committee of individuals prominent in Jewish-American and Italian-American organizations. He arrived in New York last week.
Signor DiMarco was for many years in charge of passport issuance and inspection under Mussolini. Using his strategic position in war-time, he worked in close co-operation with a Catholic priest, Father Benedetto Maria, hiding Nazi victims and fugitives when Hitler’s forces occupied Rome, and providing them with false passports and identification cards. The Jewish Community of Rome wrote him a letter of thanks after the war.
Near the end of the war the Nazi command accidentally became aware of his activities. He was thrown into the infamous Via Tasso prison, where he was tortured in efforts to make him disclose names and whereabouts of underground leaders. But he remained steadfastly silent and survived until the Allied troops liberated the Italian capital.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
