in detail
At the end of the 1930s, Prince Francesco Ruspoli constructed the building at Via Tasso 145/155. Until September 1943, the German embassy and the cultural attaché used four floors of the building.
During the German occupation of Rome from 11 September 1943 to 4 June 1944, the commander of the Security Police and the Security Service of the SS in Rome, SS Major Herbert Kappler resided there.
Part of the building was used as a barracks for the Security Police with offices, storage rooms and accommodation for officers and sergeants. Some of the rooms were converted to prison cells, in which political and Jewish prisoners were tortured.
On 15 June 1950, Princess Josepha Ruspoli donated four of the flats that had been used as prisons to the state in order to set up a museum of the history of the fight for the liberation of Rome. In the following years, the foundation was set for the »Historical Museum of the Liberation«, which was finally opened in 1957, with an exhibition that remains unchanged to this day. On three floors, the museum commemorates the resistance, the battle for Rome, the massacres in the Ardeatine caves as well as the people detained in Via Tasso. Since 1997, there has also been an exhibition on the history of Jews in Rome between 1938 and 1944 as well as on the deportations.
During the German occupation of Rome from 11 September 1943 to 4 June 1944, the commander of the Security Police and the Security Service of the SS in Rome, SS Major Herbert Kappler resided at Via Tasso 145/155.
A part of the building was used as a barracks for the Security Police, some rooms were used as prison cells, in which political and Jewish prisoners were tortured.
In 1957, the »Historical Museum of the Liberation« opened in the building.
Late 1930s
Construction of the building at Via Tasso 145/155 by Prince Francesco Ruspoli.
Until September 1943
Use of four floors by the German embassy and the cultural attaché.
11 September 1943 to 4 June 1944
During the National Socialist occupation of Rome, headquarters of the commander of the Security Police in Rome. Some rooms converted to prison cells.
15 June 1950
Princess Josepha Ruspoli donated four of the flats that had been used as prisons to the state to set up a museum of the history of the fight for the liberation of Rome.
1954
Formation of a committee to set up the museum.
4 June 1955
Part of the museum opened in the flats on the first and second floor, the former prison cells.
1957
After one of the flats on the third floor of the building was converted, the 'Museo storico della liberazione’ (Historical Museum of the Liberation) opened. The exhibition remains unchanged to date.
1999
Opening of the permanent exhibition ‘Jews in Rome 1938-1944’ on the anti-Jewish laws and the Holocaust in another flat in Via Tasso 145/155, purchased to extend the museum.
