Beneath a Scarlet Sky

Leyers is:

in his mid-fifties. Powerfully built, especially through the shoulders, the general had a bull neck that strained against his crisp white shirt and jacket. His forehead, broader than most, was defined by receding salt-and-pepper hair slicked back and glistening with pomade. His thick, dark brows seemed to throw shadows across his eyes as he scanned reports, scribbled on them, and then set them aside (194).

Leyers is constantly at work in the backseat of the car while Pino drives him to his various appointments in Italy. According to Uncle Albert, “After Field Marshal Kesselring, General Leyers is the most powerful German in Italy” (184). Throughout the novel, it’s revealed that Leyers is even more powerful than Uncle Albert believes, as he frequently has meetings with Benito Mussolini and reports directly to Hitler himself. Leyers is an intimidating man and often gets into shouting arguments with the men under his command. Initially, he is often curt and denigrating to Pino. However, when Pino saves his life from a British fighter pilot’s ambush, Leyers opens up a little bit more to Pino, complicating his character. At first, Pino sees Leyers as nothing more than a slave driver, but this image is complicated when Leyers compares Pino to his own son, when he saves the lives of four young Jews for Cardinal Schuster, and when he expresses concern over Dolly’s safety. Leyers often operates according to two pieces of advice: Do favors for others because someday you’ll need a favor in return, and be the man who works in the shadows, never the man out front.  

When Pino first sees Anna, she is described as “a tawny-blond woman with slate-blue eyes […] He guessed her to be in her early twenties. She was beautifully put together, with a gentle nose, high cheekbones, and lips that curled naturally into an easy smile.” (13). Initially, Anna stands Pino up on their date to the movies. However, Anna ends up working as a maid for Dolly, Leyers’ mistress, and eventually Anna and Pino fall in love. At first, Anna is hesitant to share her past with Pino, but slowly she reveals that her father was killed during a storm at sea; her mother went crazy with grief and blamed Anna for her father’s death. Additionally, Anna was in a previous arranged marriage, but her husband, who served in the army, was killed in North Africa. Eventually, Anna agrees to marry Pino when she returns from Innsbruck after getting Dolly settled there after the war. However, Anna and Dolly are abducted from their home and executed during Milan’s general insurrection.  

Mimo is Pino’s younger brother. After a near death experience in the Alps helping Jews escape from Italy, Mimo and Pino forge a strong relationship. However, when Pino returns to Milan and enlists in the German army, it creates a rift between him and Mimo. Mimo believes that Pino is taking the coward’s way out. Mimo is more aggressive, tenacious, and headstrong than Pino and believes the right thing to do is to join the partisans and openly fight against the Germans, which is what Mimo eventually ends up doing. Mimo earns a reputation among the partisans as a fierce fighter and earns a scar on his face from a Fascist’s knife. Whenever Mimo returns home to his parents’ apartment, he and Pino get into a fistfight. Mimo often goads Pino by calling him “Nazi boy.” When Mimo eventually learns that Pino has been using his position in the German army to spy for the Allies, Mimo apologizes to Pino and asks for his forgiveness. When Pino asks a partisan soldier if he knows Mimo, the soldier responds, “We all know that terror, and we’re happy he’s on our side” (401). 

Dolly is Leyers’ mistress in Milan. She is “a woman in her early forties […] She was leggy and pretty in a showgirl way with pendulous breasts, green eyes, and a riot of auburn hair that fell artfully about her shoulders and face” (191). Dolly seems to genuinely be in love with Leyers, though Pino often hears them arguing about the general’s wife. Leyers describes Dolly as the kind of woman that a man has for a mistress but not for a wife. Dolly is the first to notice that there is chemistry between Anna and Pino and often gives them knowing looks on her way out the door with Leyers. Near the end of the war, Dolly grows anxious about what is to become of her. When Pino sees her about to be executed by partisan soldiers, she appears hollowed and resigned to her fate. 

Father Re oversees the boys living and studying at Casa Alpina. He is “a burly priest in his fifties […] wearing a black cassock, white collar, and leather hob-nailed climbing boots” (54). As a man of God, Father Re always encourages Pino to have faith in whatever it is that he’s doing. Father Re feels that it is imperative to help any and all refuges that come to Casa Alpina escape the Nazis. Later, Father Re helps aid partisan soldiers by converting the dining hall at Casa Alpina into a field hospital. Throughout the book, Father Re often acts as a mentor to Pino and offers him counsel and spiritual advice. 

Carletto is Pino’s best friend. While Pino goes to Casa Alpina, Carletto stays in Milan to help his father run Beltramini’s Fresh Fruits and Vegetables. Mr. Beltramini often needs Carletto around because Carletto’s mother is sick and dying. Though Pino often goes long periods of time without seeing Carletto, they remain fast friends until Carletto sees the swastika on Pino’s armband. Carletto, like Mimo, accuses Pino of being a Nazi and a traitor to his country. He tells Pino “that he never wants to speak to [him] again.” After the Nazis retreat from Milan, Pino tells Carletto the truth about his spying for the Allies. Carletto then feels shame for being a passive observer during the war. Carletto tells Pino, “That’s the difference between you and me. You risk and act, while I…I watch and fear” (411). This motivates Carletto to agree to help Pino on his mission to get Leyers across the Austrian border.  

Schuster is a famous and powerful man in Milan as the Catholic leader of northern Italy. Throughout the book, Cardinal Schuster acts as a mediator between the Germans and the Italians. He often meets with Leyers and is in contact with other high-ranking German officials near the end of the war to negotiate the safe retreat of the Germans and limit the suffering of the Milanese. Cardinal Schuster is the one who talks Pino down off the roof of the Duomo when Pino is considering suicide.  

Tullio is a family friend of the Lellas. He is a “handsome, impeccably dressed man in his twenties” who never seems to have a problem with attractive women (28). Tullio works for the resistance in Milan by tracking Rauff’s movements. Eventually, Tullio is arrested by the Gestapo and sent to San Vittore. When the Germans decide to make an example of the prisoners in retaliation for a partisan bombing, Tullio is the one who calls the Fascist Black Shirts cowards before he is publicly executed.