List of massacres during the German occupation of Italy

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The central memorial for the massacre at Padule di Fucecchio near Castelmartini ( Larciano ), which was inaugurated on September 16, 2002 by the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi .

The list of massacres during the time of the German occupation of Italy (1943–1945) lists the place name, region, province, date, number of victims and the mainly German, mostly military, organization involved. These were mainly the Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS , but also the Security Police and SD .

In 2009 the then foreign ministers of Italy and Germany set up a German-Italian commission of historians . When the Commission of Historians presented its final report in 2012, the appendix documented 5,000 cases in which there were attacks such as looting, rape and murder by German troops. According to estimates by this commission, 10,000 to 15,000 people were killed in the massacres and mass shootings, and around 30,000 partisans died or were executed.

prehistory

Italy was allied with the German Reich in World War II , but initially did not intervene in the World War. However, when the German campaign against France was successful, Mussolini also declared war on Great Britain and France on June 10, 1940. The military successes of Italy, however, remained minor as a result.

When American and British troops landed in Sicily on July 10, 1943 in Operation Husky , Benito Mussolini was deposed and captured on July 25. The Partito Nazionale Fascista , the fascist party of Italy, was banned and after the Badoglio government announced the armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943 , the fall of the Axis and the occupation of Italy by German troops began. The following day the Allies started their landing near Salerno with Operation Avalanche . After the liberation of Mussolini by German troops on September 12, 1943 in the company Eiche , a puppet government was set up under Mussolini, the Italian Social Republic (RSI), which remained allied with Germany and in turn declared war on the Allied-occupied part of Italy and the parallel government .

Partisans

Memorial to the massacre at the Turchino Pass

The Allies, however, continued to advance and the partisans felt encouraged. In an open field battle they would have been hopelessly inferior, so they initially got involved in skirmishes. They formed small groups of partisans who moved from valley to valley and remained largely undiscovered. Since this approach did not lead to the desired results, they changed their tactics in various regions of central and northern Italy to a classic guerrilla war . These groups, which from the summer of 1944 were under unified leadership, were in uniform and openly carried weapons, thus fulfilled the status of combatants . This was mostly not accepted and also meant that hundreds of partisans who were captured were shot in violation of the applicable international law. During the fight against gangs captured men, not partisans, were in many cases taken by the military to assembly camps and there - if they could be used - sorted out for later work. Unserviceable and frail men and the prisoners who had been used as ammunition carriers had to expect that they too would be shot at the end of the military operation. Priests and monks were also not safe from acts of violence, for example numerous clergymen were murdered in a Carthusian monastery during the Farneta massacre .

military

The counter-reactions of the units of the Wehrmacht , Waffen-SS , militias, black brigades against partisans were called "fighting gangs" and "cleansing". Partisans as well as combatants, violations of eviction orders were charged with shootings. The military operations were in fact directed against the civilian population, who were intended to be intimidated. Not only were people killed in mass and individual shootings, but they were also tortured, executed, humiliated, and houses and entire villages plundered and pillaged.

  • An example of the brutal use of the military in the Lipa massacre

  • Military withdraws from burning Lipa after the massacre

  • Military operation in Lipa (left: SS-Obersturmführer Josef Oberhauser )

  • The burning lipa

  • House demolition in Lipa

Victim

Memorial plaque to the victims of Cervarolo and Monchio

The likelihood of the Italian population becoming a victim of German acts of violence was significantly higher in the so-called “gang area” and in the front area than in the relatively quiet rear area. This also applied to the military units stationed in each case. For example, it was the case that the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" concentrated on two adjacent rooms in the northern Apennines , while the Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring killed civilians in the area between Naples and Cassino , in the northern Apennines and in the Arezzo region . There were also divisions that rarely appeared with violent acts, for example the 232nd Infantry Division , of which only the killing of five women by one lieutenant is recorded.

The Reichsführer-SS division was particularly brutal, murdering around 2,200 innocent people within a few weeks in the summer of 1944, including women, children and the elderly. The Hermann Göring division carried out larger massacres in the same way with 1,000 civilians. This division destroyed 150 houses in the Monchio area alone.

There were almost no partisans among the victims of the massacres; the majority were women, children and the elderly.

There were also massacres of Jews , as in the massacre of Lake Maggiore in September 1943 by the SS Panzergrenadier Division LSSAH .

Explanation

The following table shows the massacres with over 50 victims (massacres described in detail are marked with an *). The number of victims is taken from the database Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia (German Atlas of the Nazi and Fascist Massacres in Italy), in which 5,856 cases with 24,380 victims (as of October 31, 2019) are listed and described in Italian. According to Atlas, there were a total of 5,309 victims in the 45 massacres listed below.

place region province date Victim unit
Marzabotto * Emilia-Romagna Bologna September 29 -
October 1, 1944		 770 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS"
Sant'Anna Stazzema * Tuscany Lucca August 12, 1944 394 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS"
Ardeatine Caves * Lazio Rome March 24, 1944 334 Security Police and SD
Lipa, Elsane, Bisterza * Fiume April 30, 1944 269 SS Karstwehr Battalion
Padule di Fucecchio * Tuscany Florence August 23, 1944 174 26th Panzer Division
Cavriglia * Tuscany Arezzo June 4, 1944 173 Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring
Vinca * Tuscany Massa Carrara August 24-27, 1944 162 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS"
San Terenzo Monti * Tuscany Massa Carrara August 17-19, 1944 159 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS"
Pisino * Pola October 4, 1943 157 SS Panzer Grenadier Division LSSAH
Frigido * Tuscany Massa Carrara September 16, 1944 149 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS"
Civitella in Val di Chiana * Tuscany Arezzo June 29, 1944 146 Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring
Monchio, Susano,
Costirgnano, Palagano *		 Emilia-Romagna Modena March 18, 1944 130 Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring
Pietransieri, Roccaraso * Abruzzo L'Aquila November 21, 1943 125 1st Paratrooper Division
San Martino di Lupari * Veneto Padua April 29, 1945 125 29th Panzer Grenadier Division
Vallucciole, Pradovecchio, Stia * Emilia-Romagna Bologna October 13, 1944 107 Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring
Benedicta Monastery , Bosio * Piedmont Alessandria April 6-11, 1944 97 356th Infantry Division and other units
Naples * Campania Naples October 1, 1943 93 II./Panzer Artillery Regiment of the Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring
Acerra * Campania Naples October 1-3, 1943 84 Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring
Tissano, Visignano Pola September 11, 1943 84 71st Infantry Division
Castelnuovo di Val di Cecina Tuscany Pisa June 13-14, 1944 77 3rd Italian Police Volunteer Battalion
Monte di Nese, Alzano Lombardo Lombardy Bergamo April 13, 1945 73 not known
Opicina Friuli Venezia Giulia Trieste April 3, 1944 71 not known
Birchini, Castelnuovo d'Istria Fiume May 18, 1944 70 SS Police Regiment 15th
Fossoli * Emilia-Romagna Modena July 12, 1944 67 Security Police and SD
Cividale del Friuli Friuli Venezia Giulia Udine unknown 66 24th Waffen Mountain (Karst Jäger) Division of the SS
Ronchidoso, Gaggio Montano Emilia-Romagna Bologna September 28-30, 1944 66 65th Infantry Division , 42nd Jäger Division
Tavolicci, Verghereto Emilia-Romagna Forlì-Cesena July 22, 1944 64 4th Police Volunteer Battalion Italy
Grugliasco Piedmont Turin April 30, 1945 64 34th Infantry Division , 5th Mountain Division
San Polo, Arezzo Tuscany Arezzo July 14, 1944 63 94th Infantry Division
Pedescala, Valdastico Veneto Vicenza April 30 - May 2, 1945 63 multiple units
Bergiola Foscalina * Tuscany Massa Carrara September 16, 1944 61 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS"
Forno, Massa Tuscany Massa Carrara June 13, 1944 60 Fortress Brigade 135 and other units
Turchino Pass * Liguria Genoa May 19, 1944 59 Security Police and SD
Camerino Brands Macerata June 24, 1944 59 5th Mountain Division
Gimino Pola October 7, 1943 58 SS Panzer Grenadier Division LSSAH
San Pancrazio * Tuscany Arezzo June 29, 1944 58 Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring
Madonna dell'Albero, Ravenna Emilia-Romagna Ravenna November 27, 1944 56 114th Jäger Division
Guardistallo Tuscany Pisa June 29, 1944 55 19th Air Force Field Division
Bellona Campania Caserta October 7, 1943 54 15th Panzer Grenadier Division
San Ruffillo train station, Bologna Emilia-Romagna Bologna February 10, 1945 53 Security Police and SD
Giaveno Piedmont Turin November 29, 1944 52 not known
Cumiana Piedmont Turin April 3, 1944 51 SS Karstwehr Battalion
Via Ghega, Trieste Friuli Venezia Giulia Trieste April 23, 1944 51 not known
Massarosa Tuscany Lucca August 11, 1944 51 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS"
Avasinis * Friuli Venezia Giulia Udine May 2, 1945 51 24th Waffen Mountain (Karst Jäger) Division of the SS

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report of the German-Italian Commission of Historians appointed by the Foreign Ministers of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Italian Republic on March 28, 2009 (PDF), on Villa Vigoni . Retrieved November 1, 2019. p. 92
  2. ^ Carlo Gentile : Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 405/406
  3. ^ A b Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 410/411
  4. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 412
  5. ↑ Monchio , on Memorial Sites Europe 1939–1945. Retrieved October 30, 2019
  6. ↑ Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste in Italia . Retrieved October 30, 2019