AUCKLAND The tale of two Kiwi priests who helped thousands of escaped Allied servicemen during World War II will be told as part of Maori Televisions 2009 Anzac Day coverage. Frs John Flanagan and Owen Snedden were young priests at the Vatican when German forces occupied Rome.
They became part of the Vatican-organised underground, which helped and hid more than 3000 escaped Allied prisoners of war in Rome, an estimated 450 of them New Zealanders.
Their story is scheduled to show at about 5pm during Maori Televisions 18 hours of broadcasting devoted to Anzac Day, commencing at 5.50am on Saturday, April 25.
Moving and heroic, theirs is a story full of self-sacrifice, spiced with lighter and more humorous moments as well.
What is amazing is that these men operated their resistance from a small room at the back of Gestapo HQ, said producer Ross Jennings.
Somehow they managed to conceal all their contraband food, uniforms, boots, passports intended for the POWs under their priests soutane.
Both priests received MBEs on their return to New Zealand. Fr Flanagan went on to become a monsignor and worked as Archbishop James Listons secretary in Auckland.
Fr Snedden, a former editor of Zealandia, went on to become the Auxiliary Bishop of Wellington.
He was renowned for his wartime broadcasts on Vatican Radio, relaying the names of prisoners of war in Axis hands in Italy, as well as disguised messages from escaped prisoners of war to relatives.
The story of the two young priests exploits will be told by family members, including great-nephew and former New Zealand cricketer and current Rugby World Cup 2011 chief executive Martin Snedden.
The story is one of many vignettes to be played through the day.
