Eighty five years ago Italy was on the wrong side of history after joining Adolf Hitler in declaring war against Allied countries including the United States and the United Kingdom. It took the most multinational and multiracial army ever assembled to finally end Nazi and Italy Fascist tyranny in Italy in April of 1945 when the nine-month Gothic Line offensive concluded and WW II ended in Europe with Germany's unconditional surrender.

Often referred to as the Forgotten Front, the Allied Force Gothic Line offensive took place after the liberation of Rome on June 4, 1944 and the D-Day invasion in Normandy. It was the final phase of a bloody battle up the Italian boot. Built by slave laborers, mercenaries, prisoners of war in the northern Apennine Mountains, Hitler ordered the construction of the Gothic Line as a last defense barrier against the capture of the Po River valley, which is the breadbasket of Italy. The Gothic Line consisted of 300 kilometers of bunkers, trenches and tunnels- many still in existence. Soldiers from more than 17 countries took part in the Allied Force Offensive. It marked the first infantry combat for segregated U.S. Army African American soldiers, who fought two enemies: the Nazis and racist American white commanders. Other Allied soldiers included Japanese-Americans, whose families were locked up in prison camps in the United States, Indian soldiers from all sects and religions, black South Africans and Maorians from New Zealand. All of them fought and died for democracy in Italy and Europe even though they did not have it in their home country. The first Jewish Brigade since Roman times joined the Allied Forces on the Gothic Line in January of 1945 and would go onto to play a controversial role in rescuing survivors of the Holocaust.

In addition more than 200 civilian massacres in villages across the Gothic Line were carried out by Nazi and Italian Fascist soldiers. Few were held accountable for those war crimes and they area festering political wound 80 years later. And as Italian President Sergio Mattarella stated in early 2025 these massacres are no different than what Russian President Vladimir Putin has done in Ukraine in the past three years.

Meanwhile most Italians are unaware or have collective amnesia about this ugly chapter in their recent history. With Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni's political party Brothers of Italy tracing its roots back to Hitler's ally Italian Dictator Benito Mussolini the Fascist past regularly erupts today more than it has for decades. At the same time U.S. President Donald Trump threatens the post-WW II transatlantic economic and defense alliance that has fostered relative peace and prosperity for the last 80 years and Putin makes no secret of his ambition to rebuild the Iron Curtain. As a result Italy, a founding European Union member state, faces crucial security and defense questions. Considering so many foreign soldiers sacrificed their lives for Italy 80 years ago, solidarity with countries facing the same death and destruction today from Russian aggression would seem like an easy choice. However across the Italian political spectrum and among a majority of the population there is opposition not only to helping Ukraine with military arms but also plans to rebuild a European military defense capacity required due to Trump's pro-Putin appeasement policies.

The complacency against the threat of Russia is similar in Italy and other parts of Europe to what happened in the 1930s when Hitler threatened. Along with scapegoating immigrants their is denial about their vital role in keeping the Italian and European economy going in the face of an aging population, stagnant economic growth and a massive national debt. All of these issues and others are the subject of more than 15 episodes of this podcast that details the story of the Gothic Line ghosts that haunt Italy and Europe and where the past is present.