The Irish priest who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis’ death camps

Hide and Seek

By the time of Rome’s liberation in 1944, O’Flaherty’s network was hiding 4,000 prisoners and had by then moved thousands more to safety

IN 1963, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty was a guest on the then new TV show, This Is Your Life. The retired monsignor had travelled from Cahirsiveen to BBC London’s studio for the programme celebrating Major Sam Derry, who had helped run an escape network in Rome during World War II for allied prisoners of war, dissenters and Jews.