Rome, Open City ending explained

What happens

Manfredi dies under torture without betraying anyone. Don Pietro is shot by a firing squad, and an officer finishes him with a pistol after some soldiers deliberately miss. The occupiers' cruelty is shown, and so is the resistance of ordinary Italians.

The last image

The boys who watched the execution from behind a fence turn and walk back toward Rome, the dome of St Peter's in the distance.

What it says

The ending refuses a victory. Both men die, but they give nothing away, and the children who saw it all carry on into the city. The film offers survival and inheritance, and trusts the next generation to remember.