Diary, dating April 3, 1943 to Sept. 4, 1944, written by Frances L. Otis, a native of Oshkosh, Wis., living in Florence, Italy during World War II. The diary is an almost daily account of the privations, fears, injuries, and deaths of a city under Axis occupation, as well as Allied bombardment. She describes the fall of Mussolini, and, in the face of liberation, German torture, murder, and rape of civilians; German destruction and looting of the city and surrounding countryside; and rumors of sabotage by peasants forced to surrender livestock. Included as well are her accounts of acts of courage and resistance by those close to her.
