BOOKS – Gold and Homeland: the untold story of Niccolò Introna, a forgotten hero

“Years later, as he approached his eighties, Niccolò Introna would feel the need to defend himself for the first time in his life. It was as if he were on trial, not them. Particularly not the two people in question, including Hitler’s emissary who had been shadowing him for over a year and a half.” This is a gripping opening, reminiscent of American-style spy thrillers. The subsequent pages are equally riveting, but Federico Fubini’s latest book, L’oro e la patria (Gold and homeland), begins with a note to the reader: “Nothing you will read is invented or embellished; everything is based on original documents or, less frequently, direct testimonies and historical studies.”
Yet, the story contains all the hallmarks of a thriller: a bank vault, 120 tons of gold, and group of Nazi officers as the villains. The hero is however somewhat unusual: an over 70-year-old executive, a devoted Waldensian, a steadfast servant of a state he believed in wholeheartedly. His name is Niccolò Introna.
On September 20, 1943, when Herbert Kappler, Hitler’s intelligence commander, arrived at the Bank of Italy’s headquarters in Rome with a contingent of SS officers to demand the surrender of all the gold at Palazzo Koch, Introna chose to obstruct them. Having fought against the corruption of Mussolini’s regime, Introna had managed to keep meticulous records of the dictator’s embezzlement of public funds.
Federico Fubini has pieced together Introna’s story by examining tens of thousands of documents—some confidential—that Introna had collected over his lifetime, which reveal Mussolini’s financial misdeeds. This is a story that has been (deliberately?) overlooked.