Hello and welcome to the History Hour podcast from the BBC World Service with me Max Pearson,

the past brought to life by those who were there.

This week a cunning plan to protect Italian artworks from being looted by the Nazis in the Second World War.

We were just told that my mum was very unwell and we couldn't go into her room, but she was perfectly fine.

She was actually guarding the artworks.

Also we remember a hero of Catalan nationalism, the trial of O.J Simpson as remembered by a friend

who testified against him in court.

I felt like I couldn't really trust anybody,

but I knew one thing I knew I wasn't going to do.

I wasn't going to lie. And Madonna, the early years.

There was probably a moment where I realized, I don't think I'm her boyfriend anymore.

Well I'm certainly not her only boyfriend.

That's all to come. But we begin with Ernesto Che Guevara, one of the few figures from

history whose name alone can conjure up one of the truly iconic images of the 20th century.

It has hung on the walls of students, been printed on countless t-shirts, and even this month, on the 50th anniversary of his death has caused controversy in Ireland where the Postal Service

has issued a commemorative stamp bearing that image. Che was a trained doctor from Argentina who preached

socialism and fought alongside Fidel Castro to establish communism in Cuba. He

went on to try to stir up revolution in Congo and then elsewhere in Latin America.

And it was in Bolivia in October 1967 that he died at the hands of his Bolivian army captors.

Mike Lanchin has spoken to Felix Rodriguez, a CIA operative who

helped to track him down and was one of the last people to speak to Cheegovara

before he died. I got everything here from that day from the from Shecavirus

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