"When signing the Armistice the gates were opened and hundreds of American, British, South African, Canadian, Indian and Australian prisoners escaped from town and vanished in the nearby countryside".On the day of the liberation of Bologna from the Nazi-fascist occupation, citizens, partisans, allied soldiers and tanks crowded the main square, Piazza Maggiore; the future Mayor of Bologna, Giuseppe Dozza, Borghese and Zoccoli, the President of the regional CLN (Comitato Liberazione Nazionale, National Committee for Liberation) greeted the citizens from the balcony of the municipality.