John Furman
John Furman a Lieutenant escaped in December 1943 with another Lieutenant, Bill Simpson and Joe Pollak a Czechoslovakian Jew and was brought to The Monsignor in Rome.
Furman and Simpson had been good friends with Sam Derry when they were in the prisoner-of-war camp together.
Furman, Simpson and Pollak became involved in the organisation immediately and took over the risky job of guiding escapees to locations and delivering food supplies and clothes.
One of the many duties executed by Furman and Simpson was the distribution of turkeys, wine, cigarettes and special parcels at Christmas.
On the 8th January, 1944 Furman was unluckily arrested by SS, who were in a plot to track down Italian Communists. He was taken to Regina Coeli prison.
In February Furman and Lieutenant J.S Johnstone managed to escape and return to Rome after jumping from a train while being moved North.
As well as regularly moving from residence to residence, Furman had to dye his hair black and shave off his moustach in an effort to disguise himself as he was one of the most wanted men in Rome. Until the end of the war Furman had many close escapes but managed to continue his good work for the organisation.
He said of The Monsignor:
"through the six months of German occupation while I was in almost daily contact with him, he never once tried to 'sell' me religion. I did not look upon him as a priest but as a very good friend who made other people's troubles his own"
Furman wrote a book called 'Be Not Fearful'