The goal of this research project is to enhance our knowledge of women’s roles in the Italian Resistance movement. In particular, it explores the stories of three women in Northern Italy who participated in the Resistance and collaborated with
the U.S. Office of Strategic Services to free the Italian peninsula from Nazi-Fascist control. Two of the women–Giuliana Foscolo and Liliana Saporetti–lived in villas that were occupied by the Nazis. While they ‘hosted’ the Nazis they secretly hid
fellow partisans and Allied military personnel in their homes. Foscolo deciphered telegrams and responded in code. Saporetti delivered Nazi military plans to partisan leaders after having eavesdropped on the German officials living with her family. A third villa nearby belonged to the Countess Isabel de Obligado who reported to the Gestapo but who also opened her home to partisan commandants and hid U.S military personnel from the Nazis. Collectively, the stories of these three remarkable women will deepen our understanding of women’s contributions to the liberation of Italy. The project will also shed light on the collaboration between Italian partisans and the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, the intelligence agency formed to coordinate espionage activities behind enemy lines during WWII.