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Italian-American Immigrants & WWII
An estimated 1.2 million Italian-Americans fought for the United States during World War II. The U.S. intelligence organization, the OSS, recruited first-generation Italian-Americans for specialized training to aid the Italian Resistence, in the belief that their knowledge of Italian language and culture would be advantageous behind enemy lines. Representing the largest ethnic group in the wave of immigration between the Wars, Italian-Americans proved pivotal in the fight against the Nazis. Battling for two countries at once, they served with respect for their Italian heritage, and with devotion to their adopted nation.
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Italy Declares War
When Italy entered WWII as a German ally, military morale was low, and many soldiers felt the fight was without cause. But between 1943 and 1945, that attitude shifted, when Italians saw that Mussolini's pact with Hitler would devastate their nation, they rallied in opposition, fighting valiantly to liberate their country from Fascism.
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Italian-Americans Recruited by the OSS
The United States' intelligence organization, the Office of Strategic Services (OSS), a precursor to the CIA, proposed a bold gambit -- recruit a vast number of these first-generation Americans for specialized training to aid the Italian Resistance. OSS leaders believed that the cultrual backgrounds of Italian Americans combined with their knowledge of the language and their empathy for people whose values of family and community were similar to their own, would provide them with advantages behind enemy lines.
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Partisans: The Resistance In Italy
The Italian Resistance was one of the most important in Europe. In the summer of 1944, the Partisans numbered around 70,000; at the end of the war they were 200,000 strong, and had suffered 50,000 casualties. They tied up a third of the German Army in Italy away from the Allied front. These are a few of their stories.
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Women in the Resistance
Italian women played a vital role in the successes of the Resistance. After the war - for the first time in Italy - women could vote and hold positions in the national government. Of the five percent that comprised the 1946 legislature for the newborn Italian republic, more than half of those women had served in the partisan movement.
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Missions: OSS in Italy
The OSS worked with the partisans to cut vital German supply lines and provide intelligence for Allied air raids. The support to regular military operations in Italy, plus the dangerous special Operational Group missions in collaboration with the partisans, drew unanimous praise from the Allied commanders.
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Ennio Tassinari - OSS Agent
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Patriots for Freedom - 11th Group
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