Museum Of The Liberation Of Rome, Italy Editorial Photo

Cell number 1 in the second floor of the the Museum of the Liberation of Rome in Via Tasso 145 close to the basilica of St. John Lateran in Rome, Italy. Cell number 1 was the largest and concerns the Ardeatine Massacre a German reprisal for the Via Rasella attack with 336 victims gunned down. The building housing the museum was used by the SS to torture members of the Italian Resistance in the first half of 1944. Under Kappler the apartments located on three floors were transformed into a prison, with the rooms being turned into cells. In January 1944 all windows were walled up to facilitate imprisonment, interrogations and torture of some of the most important figures of the Italian resistance, with an estimated 2000 people passing through the building. Following donation of the apartments occupied by the SS to the Italian State in 1950 the museum was established to record the period of German occupation and Rome`s subsequent liberation in 1957.