ITALY: Death at 84

Sullen Romans watched Fascisti parade. Gestapomen watched the Romans. Suddenly a bomb exploded, followed by shots. Men & women fell, including, the Germans said afterward, 24 Gestapomen.

With machine precision the Germans went into action. Troops drove 400 women, 700 men toward an open square. Those who lacked identity cards were shot out of hand. Those who stumbled were killed. Fear swept unchecked through Rome, but this was not enough.

Newsmen in Switzerland reported that the reprisals had just begun. Hours later, according to these reports, vans carried 300 to the ancient, crumbling Colosseum where once gladiators fought and Christians died. They had been picked at random.

One among the 300 was Marshal Bado-glio’s son, Mario. Another was Vittorio Emanuele Orlando, 84, Italy’s member of the Big Four who made the Versailles Treaty. The onetime Premier withdrew from public life in 1925, abandoned even the teaching of law when the Fascists asked an oath of loyalty in 1931. Orlando had been living quietly near the Porta Pia, just happened to be passing by.

When the machine guns ceased chattering, the 24 Gestapomen had been avenged.