Father Giovanni Forsanini

In 1943, the Allied Armies invaded Italy and began to push the German Army out of the country. While they retreated, the Germans committed numerous war crimes, which included the murder of innocent Italians. As the German Army retreated, it came upon a Roman Catholic parish,where the pastor was Father Giovanni Forsanini. When two German soldiers attempted to rape a teenage Italian girl, Father intervened and offered his own life to the Germans. They then murdered the priest but did not rape the girl as they intended. They decapitated the priest's corpse and buried him in a shallow grave behind his church.