Beneath a Scarlet Sky

The morning of Christmas Day, Mimo visits Pino at the apartment. Mimo has a nasty scar down the left side of his face and “looked as battle-hardened as the German soldiers down along the Gothic Line” (321). Uncle Albert had reports that Mimo had seen combat and shown great courage in battle. Mimo insults Anna, saying that Pino brought a whore into their parents’ house. Pino throws his pistol into Mimo’s face and knocks Mimo to the floor.

The following days bring bitter winter storms to northern Italy. Leyers continues to make trips to the Gothic Line to supply his troops with their rations. Meanwhile, Leyers seems indifferent to the suffering of the Italian people. Pino drives Leyers to the Monza train station repeatedly, where Leyers disappears and then reappears with his valise seeming heavier than before. When Leyers asks Pino to take him to the Swiss border above Lugano, Pino suspects that Leyers is smuggling gold. After one trip, Leyers tells Pino that the war is over: “It might as well be […] We’re in economic collapse, on the run militarily, and the ungodly things done for Hitler are about to be uncovered” (324). Leyers drinks liquor all the way back to Dolly’s apartment. When he gets out of the car, Pino notices that Leyers has forgotten to take his valise with him.

Uncle Albert tells Pino that they’ve come under Gestapo scrutiny and need to “back off, slow down, fade into the shadows if we can” (326). Pino quickly describes Leyers’ trips to Switzerland, and they open his valise. Uncle Albert gets Aunt Greta to translate. Inside, they find an incomplete note to General Karl Wolff, the head of the SS in Italy. The note makes a case for the war’s being lost. When Pino leaves to return the valise to Leyers, Rauff stops him. Pino tells Rauff that he had taken Leyers’ valise to his uncle’s shop because the stitching was broken and needed to be fixed.

Late that night at the apartment, Pino gets a call from his mother: A family friend’s daughter has been killed in the crossfire of a battle between Fascist and partisan fighters. She asks Pino to recover her body from the cemetery between Legnago and Nogara. Pino manages to slip his way through the ongoing battle and gets to the girl’s body, but three Fascist soldiers stop him. Pino tells the Fascists that he works for Leyers and translates for Il Duce when the general visits him. After he shows the soldiers his papers, the soldiers let him go, and Pino recovers the girl’s body. As Pino is exiting the cemetery, he sees that the Fascists are putting the severed heads of the partisan soldiers on fence posts. 

Pino delivers the body of the girl to her family’s house and slips out so they can grieve. Pino is shaken from witnessing the desecration of the partisan bodies at the cemetery. He decides to visit Father Re at Casa Alpina to get his advice. At the front gate of Casa Alpina, partisan fighters search Pino until Father Re recognizes him. Casa Alpina has been converted into a field hospital for partisan soldiers. Pino confesses to Father Re everything he has done and witnessed since he left Casa Alpina. Pino tells Father Re that witnessing the Fascist soldiers butcher the dead “makes me question my faith in mankind, in people being good deep down, not savages, not like that” (342). Father Re believes that Pino has saved the lives of many Allies with the information he’s provided them. Pino tells Father Re about Anna before he goes. When Pino leaves, Father Re tells him to be careful and not to break Anna’s heart.

After stopping once again at the train station in Monza, Leyers orders Pino to take him to the central train station in Milan. On Platform 21 of the station, Pino can hear more helpless people calling from the boxcars. One of the women calls out that her daughter is sick with fever. Pino watches as Leyers and Rauff have an intense argument until Leyers gestures at his valise. Rauff then orders two of his SS guards to unlock the doors on the boxcar. Leyers takes the sick girl and three other young men and women off the train and spares their lives. Leyers asks them who saved them from Platform 21 and tells them to repeat his name. Leyers orders Pino to take the children to the chancellery and tell Cardinal Schuster that he’s sorry he couldn’t bring more. Pino brings the children to Cardinal Schuster, who tells Pino, “I don’t know what to make of your General Leyers” (352).

Leyers’ behavior begins to turn erratic after saving the four Jews. Some days he works at his normal, frenzied pace, and other days he turns despondent and gets drunk at Dolly’s apartment. Leyers plans to move Dolly to Innsbruck when the Brenner Pass road opens; Anna is going with her, but will return to Milan once Dolly is settled.

Pino drives Leyers to the chancellery to see Cardinal Schuster. Barbareschi answers the door when Pino and Leyers arrive, and Pino wonders if Barbareschi had escaped prison again. Cardinal Schuster introduces Leyers to Eugen Dollmann, Hitler’s personal translator. As Schuster and Leyers talk through Dollmann, Schuster says that he’s heard rumors that Hitler plans to scorch the earth if there is to be a retreat. Leyers says that he’s also heard those rumors and that he disagrees with the policy. Schuster wants to know if the new field marshal, Vietinghoff, can be persuaded to see things that way as well, to which Leyers replies he’s willing to try to persuade him. Before he leaves, Leyers warns Schuster that powerful people are looking for a reason to see Schuster in prison, or worse. When Dollmann expresses disbelief at the idea, Leyers invokes Auschwitz, which Schuster calls “an abomination before God” (357).

Leyers then visits the Fiat factory to speak with the manager. When the manager tells Leyers that there have been too many sabotages and they can’t run the line anymore, Pino expects Leyers to erupt in a rage. However, Leyers tells the manager that he appreciates his honesty and wants him to know that he’s working to “make sure Fiat is protected” from destruction (358).

When Pino reports to Uncle Albert and Aunt Greta, they tell Pino there had been disturbing news about Auschwitz on the radio. The Russians got to Auschwitz on January 27 and found the Jews that the Nazis had tried to work to death along with the gas chambers the Nazis blew up before leaving.

On February 20, Leyers and Pino drive to a position to watch the siege of Monte Castello. By the end of the day, the Germans are in full retreat. Leyers tells Pino, “I am beaten here, and Bologna will be lost in a matter of days. Take me back to Milan” (361).

When Pino returns to his parents’ apartment, he learns that Rauff’s men had arrested Uncle Albert and taken him to Hotel Regina. Michele tells Pino that he wants him to run to the Swiss border to wait for the war to end, but Pino refuses. Ten days later, Pino stands outside of a villa in the hills east of Lake Garda. Inside the villa is a meeting of high-ranking German officials. Pino sneaks to the window to investigate. Inside, he hears an angry voice shout, “Was du redest ist Verrat!” (365).

At Mussolini’s estate, Leyers and Pino find Il Duce and his mistress despondent. Mussolini is depressed about the retreat Germany is planning. He wants to know if the rumors are true—if Hitler has a secret weapon, a rocket-bomb that he plans on using against the Allies once his men retreat. This thought reinvigorates Mussolini. Leyers doesn’t indicate whether the rumors about a secret weapon are true.

Pino and Leyers drive to the Brenner Pass road on March 15. Snow and ice block the way to the top of the Brenner Pass and beyond it, Austria. The Germans have an army of prisoners hacking away at the ice to try to clear the way for an escape route. Pino believes that as of now, the Nazis are trapped. Later that night, Pino has Baka send a message urging either the partisans or Allies to bomb the “snowy ridges.” Five days later, Allied bombs cause avalanches that obstruct the roads with snow.

By dawn, Pino and Leyers take the high ground to look down on Lake Comacchio. Later in the morning, Pino sees smoke in the distance and Leyers tells him that the Allies are bombing their ships. In the afternoon, Leyers and Pino watch as Allied forces break through German lines on the ground.

Every two or three days, Pino and Leyers return to the Brenner Pass to check on the progress of the blockage.

Leyers begins overseeing the burning of large amounts of Nazi documents. When Leyers and Pino check the Brenner Pass again, fewer than 250 meters of snow separate the Nazis from an open road to Austria. Pino hates that so many of the Nazi documents are being burned because the proof of what they had done in Italy was vanishing.

Back at the apartment, Michele’s cousin’s son, Mario, is visiting; he’s a fighter pilot who was shot down the other night. Pino gets dressed and leaves to see Anna. When he gets in the Fiat, someone in the back seat puts a gun to his head. Pino recognizes the gunman’s voice as Mimo’s. Mimo knows what Pino has been doing as a spy for the resistance, and Mimo is sorry for the things he’s said. Mimo had a gun because he didn’t know if Pino was armed or if he would try to kill him. Mimo has been sent by partisan commanders with orders to have Pino arrest Leyers the night of the 25th and bring him to a specific address. Pino agrees to do it.

When Pino makes it to Dolly’s apartment, Dolly is upset that Leyers hasn’t been there in four nights. Pino tells Dolly that Leyers wants Dolly moved to Innsbruck; Dolly is relieved. Anna and Pino make love again in her bedroom that night.

In the morning, Anna tells Pino that she will call his parents’ apartment once she makes it to Innsbruck. Before he leaves that morning, Pino asks Anna if she’ll marry him when she gets back to Milan; Anna says yes.

Pino drives Leyers to the stadium at Como. Leyers enters the stadium, and Pino can hear the noise from the Germans drinking inside. Pino falls asleep in the car. In the morning, Pino is summoned into the stadium to translate. Max Corvo introduces himself to Pino. He has Pino tell Leyers that he is with the Office of Strategic Services and that he represents Allen Dulles. Through Pino, Corvo negotiates with Leyers that his men will offer zero resistance if asked to lay down their arms. Before Corvo can leave, Pino also tells him that Leyers “has been burning documents across northern Italy for the past three days” (392).

Back in Milan, Leyers meets with Cardinal Schuster, Barbareschi, Dollmann, SS General Wolff, Mussolini, and Claretta, along with partisan leaders. Cardinal Schuster tells the group, “Our goal, then, is to save Milan further suffering and limit the amount of German blood spilled as they retreat” (393). During the meeting, Mussolini is in denial about surrender and negotiations. Cardinal Schuster has him leave the meeting. Schuster tells Wolff to issue an order to Rauff to have the SS stand down. As they are leaving the chancellery, a priest notifies Cardinal Schuster that the prisoners of San Vittore are rioting.

As Pino is driving Leyers to the Hotel Regina, he sees a German lorry filled with armed soldiers stopped at the exit to a parking garage. Mimo is aiming a machine pistol at the windshield of the Nazi lorry. Pino feels emboldened by the moment and draws his gun on Leyers. Pino orders Leyers to place his hands behind his head and then takes his pistol from him and forces Leyers to drive to the address the partisans provided. Along the way, Leyers tries to persuade Pino to change his mind. When they reach the address, partisan soldiers handcuff Leyers, take his valise, and drag him inside.

As he walks back to Milan, Pino hears the Duomo’s bells start to ring. For the first time in nearly two years, the streetlamps around Milan come back on. Pino can hear partisans, Fascists, and Germans fighting for control of the city. As he enters Milan, people are tearing down blackout curtains and calling for the Nazis to be driven out of the city. At his parents’ apartment, everyone is celebrating that the Nazis are on the run. Uncle Albert is at the apartment, having escaped the prison and opened up the cells, releasing everyone.

The next morning, Pino must meet an American named Knebel at the Hotel Diana. On his walk to the hotel, Pino sees the bodies of dead people in the streets—victims of revenge killings the previous night. When Pino meets Major Knebel of the 10th Mountain Division, he asks Pino for two things: to get him inside the telephone exchange to make some phone calls, and to gather supplies for a party that night to celebrate the end of the war. Pino manages to find Carletto and tell him about the spying he did for the Allies. He convinces Carletto to help him find wine, food, and young ladies for the party.

Pino and Carletto move cases of wine and homemade beer to the Hotel Diana. Pino plays the piano and Carletto is on the drums as the group parties into the night. Pino wakes up on the hotel kitchen floor with a hangover. He heads home and sees more bodies from revenge killings on the sidewalk. As he is crossing the public gardens, Pino sees Mario coming toward him in his Free Italian Air Force uniform. The two talk, and as Pino begins to leave, a man confronts Mario and accuses him of being a Fascist. The man shoots Mario in the head and begins to aim the gun at Pino; Pino runs off.

Outside the Hotel Regina, Pino sees that partisans are searching the Gestapo headquarters. He then remembers that Leyers had mentioned going back to Dolly’s apartment twice to retrieve some papers before Pino arrested him. Pino goes to Dolly’s apartment before heading home to tell his father about Mario. At Dolly’s apartment, Pino finds the door busted in and hanging off its hinges. In Anna’s room, he finds the bag that Uncle Albert had given her on Christmas Eve. When Pino asks the old woman at the front desk where Dolly and Anna have gone, the woman identifies Pino as a Nazi and begins screaming for help.

As Pino is trying to decide what to do, he hears distant shouting and follows a mob inside the Castello Sforzesco. The partisans are bringing out Fascists for an execution. As Pino pushes his way to the front of the crowd, he sees that Dolly and Anna are among the people being executed. Pino pleads with one of the guards to let him speak with his commander, but Pino doesn’t have the letter the partisans gave him the other night. Anna is pleading with the crowd: “Someone tell them I’m just a maid!” (426). The partisans execute Anna, Dolly, and the rest of the people accused of being collaborators.

Pino is plagued with guilt after Anna’s execution. He feels that he is a coward for not having said anything before her execution, even if it meant his own death. Pino begins to break down and sob with grief. The crowd watches him, and a man accuses Pino of knowing one of the collaborators. People begin to chase Pino through the streets in order to capture him. Pino hides inside an opera house and begins to feel tortured when the tenor inside sings “Vesti la Giubba,” “Put on the Costume.” As people continue to chase him, Pino makes it to the Duomo. Pino is so tortured by the fact that he didn’t do or say anything to save Anna that he climbs to a balcony high above the cathedral’s front doors and contemplates suicide.

Cardinal Schuster stops Pino from stepping off the cathedral’s balcony. The cardinal recognizes Pino and asks if he’s the traitor and collaborator who people are looking for. When Pino nods yes, Cardinal Schuster tells Pino that he’s granting him sanctuary. Pino confesses to Cardinal Schuster that he said nothing to save Anna from the firing squad. Cardinal Schuster tells Pino, “It is a tragedy that your Anna died that way, but you had the right to survive. Every human has that basic, God-given right, Pino, and you feared for your life” (438).

After dark, Pino returns to his parents’ apartment. Michele breaks down crying when he hears that Mario is dead. Pino tries to go to sleep listening to the shortwave radio but ends up tuning it to static before he falls asleep.

In the morning, Pino goes with his father and Uncle Albert to Cimitero Monumentale to look for Mario’s body. Pino finds Mario’s body, and Uncle Albert finds Anna’s body. At first, Uncle Albert doesn’t want to tell Pino where her body is, but relents. 

Pino eventually finds Anna’s body and sobs, telling her that he failed her. Michele and Uncle Albert tell Pino that they can’t take Anna’s body with them; if they do, the partisans who are inspecting who is claiming the bodies will think Pino is a collaborator.

Pino tries to sleep that night but can’t. Instead, he gets out of bed at three o’clock in the morning and goes back to the Cimitero Monumentale. When partisans stop Pino and check his papers, Pino tells them that he is looking for the body of his fiancée and asks one of the guards for three matches so he can see in the dark. When Pino returns to the place where he had seen Anna’s body earlier, she’s gone.

Pino walks to the Hotel Diana and finds Major Knebel hungover and drinking coffee. Pino asks if he can talk to the Major, but before he can, a young boy bursts in through the front door and tells Knebel that Mussolini’s body is being brought to Piazzale Loreto. Pino and Knebel head to Piazzale Loreto to bear witness.

A total of 16 bodies are brought to the square, with Mussolini and Claretta in the middle of them. One old woman squats over Claretta and urinates on her face. Another woman darts forward and puts five rounds in Mussolini’s skull. The bodies are then strung up in the square for the crowd of people to see. Major Knebel and Pino leave the square feeling disgusted.

Outside Beltramini’s Fresh Fruits and Vegetables, Major Knebel asks Pino and Carletto if they would be willing to do something to help America. He tells Pino and Carletto that it’s a dangerous mission and that they could get killed, but both Pino and Carletto agree to it. Knebel tells Pino and Carletto to meet him at the Hotel Diana at three o’clock in the morning the day after tomorrow.