Massacre at Padule di Fucecchio

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The central monument made of Carrara marble near Castelmartini ( Larciano ), which was inaugurated on September 16, 2002 by the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi .

The massacre at Padule di Fucecchio ( Padule di Fucecchio = swamp of Fucecchio ) took place on August 23, 1944 in a marshland on the Arno , which lies between the Italian provinces of Pistoia and Florence in Tuscany . It is named after the town of Fucecchio , which lies on the edge of the swamp. The massacre committed by units of the 26th Panzer Division killed 174 civilians.

prehistory

From mid-July 1944, the Allies' forward movement in Tuscany on the Arno had stopped. The Allied forces were located south of the marshland and the Wehrmacht's 26th Panzer Division to the north . In the swamp, men and women who had fled had sought protection from acts of war and some lived in reed huts. The Wehrmacht prepared for another retreat up to the position of the Goths . She did not want to be attacked by the locals and refugees, among whom she suspected partisans.

massacre

Map of the places where the victims of the massacre were found

Early on the morning of August 23, 1944, the 26th Armored Infantry Division, 9th Panzer Grenadier Regiment and 93rd Pioneer Battalion of the 26th Panzer Division began a so-called "cleansing of the gang area ", which was an attack on the civilian population. In addition to the swamp margins, the area of operation included the towns of Monsummano Terme , Larciano , Ponte Bugginianese, Cerreto Guidi and Fucecchio . General Eduard Crasemann of the 26th Panzer Division had assigned Captain Josef Strauch to carry out the massacre.

Small patrols from the Reconnaissance Division of the 26th Panzer Division searched the edges of the swamp, where most of the civilians were killed. Artillery fired into the reeds and on buildings on the edge of the swamp, which were set on fire. Those found in houses were shot, only a few people managed to escape. There were few exceptions for younger men who survived when used as ammunition carriers. Prisoners were shot immediately if they had weapons with them. Tanks were deployed and buildings were shot at in the south of the swamp. In some cases, the bodies of women and children were covered with straw and infected.

Inhuman atrocities took place, a blind and deaf woman was put a grenade in the pocket of her apron and detonated, and a case of necrophilia became known. In the area of ​​Angions, local fascists collaborated with the Wehrmacht, but also at Monsummane Terme and Larciano. Initially, the corpses of soldiers were transported to mass graves, but also by family members or pastors. There are also said to have been German soldiers who took care of the injured. The massacre ended around 2:00 p.m. in the early afternoon.

Victim

There were a total of 174 victims:

  • 113 male victims, including 13 young children, 4 adolescents and 96 adults (including 31 men over 55 years old)
  • 61 female victims, including 10 small children, the youngest of whom only a few weeks old, 6 young people, 45 adults (including 6 women over 55 years of age)

The number of victims by locality is as follows: Monsummano Terme 64, Larciano 47, Ponte Buggiane 32, Cereto Guidi 24, Fucecchio 7.

Prosecution

The 26th Panzer Division was commanded by Lieutenant General Baron Smilo von Lüttwitz until July 1944 and this division was not known for its war crimes until this massacre. After von Lüttwitz had been replaced by the 48-year-old Eduard Crasemann, who at that time had the rank of colonel , the division staff dealt with plans to fight gangs. Cranemann handed over the command for the military operation to the 34-year-old commander of the reconnaissance department, Rittmeister Strauch, on August 23, 1944. What this order was was the subject of mutual accusations during the negotiations and could not be conclusively clarified. There is no doubt that Crasemann and Strauch were primarily responsible for the massacre.

Judgment in Padua

General Eduard Crasemann was brought to justice by a British military tribunal in Padua in April 1947 . Josef Strauch was invited to witness this trial. Crasemann asserted that the massacre was caused by a chain of unfortunate circumstances, that he was innocent. For his part, Strauch stated that he had been personally instructed by Crasemann to exterminate the gang and that he had tried to change his mind until the end, which was also confirmed by witnesses. The court didn't believe Crasemann and he was sentenced to ten years imprisonment. He died in the military prison in Werl in 1950.

Judgment in Florence

Captain Rittmeister Josef Strauch came before the military court in Florence and was sentenced to six years in prison. The judgment upheld by the Supreme Military Court on September 13, 1949. He was released in the spring. This happened on the intervention of the Konrad Adenauer government to the Italian President Luigi Einaudi , who pardoned him.

Judgments in Rome

The La Spezia military prosecutor initiated investigations against Captain Ernst August Arthur Pistor , Oberstabsfeldwebel Fritz Jauss and NCO Johann Robert Riss . The military court in Rome sentenced all the accused to life imprisonment on May 25, 2011 (Pistor died in July 2011). The judgments were upheld on November 15, 2012 by the Court of Appeal in Rome.

Rejection of an enforcement in Germany

The Kempten District Court rejected the application for the execution of the life sentence against Riss in April 2015 (Pistor and Jauss had since died). The judge responsible came to this judgment because the Italian judgment was based on presumptions based on the affiliation to a department and the military grade. In addition, the defendants' rights of defense would have been impaired. This judgment was issued even though the Italian judgments on the matter were based on a British and a US investigation.

Commemoration

Plaque with the names of the victims in Castelmartini, Larciano

Since the troops operated widely, there are numerous places and places where the massacres took place, but there are numerous memorials for the victims. The monument, which is located near Castelmartini ( Larciano ) and was inaugurated on September 16, 2002 by the Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi , forms the central memorial.

At Casa Simoni near Monsummano Terme there is a stone tablet that refers to 23 civilians who were murdered there.

literature

  • Friedrich Andrae: Also against women and children: the war of the German armed forces against the civilian population in Italy 1943–1945 . Piper, Munich 1995, ISBN 3-492-03698-8 .
  • Carlo Gentile : Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . (Cologne, Univ., Diss., 2008.)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Massacre (English). on eccidiopadulefucecchio. Retrieved November 5, 2019
  2. ↑ a b c d Padule di Fucecchio (Italian), on Straginazifasciste. Retrieved November 12, 2019
  3. ^ Carlo Gentile : Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 385-388
  4. ^ Monsummano Terme (Italian). Retrieved November 6, 2019
  5. ^ Larciano (Italian). Retrieved November 6, 2019
  6. ^ Ponte Buggiane (Italian). Retrieved November 6, 2019
  7. ↑ Cereto Guidi (Italian). Retrieved November 6, 2019
  8. ↑ Fucecchio (Italian). Retrieved November 6, 2019
  9. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 382/383
  10. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 384
  11. ↑ Map of the places of war crimes (Italian), on Eccidiopadulefucecchio. Retrieved November 6, 2019
  12. ^ Monsummano Terme (Italian), in Eccidiopadulefucecchio. Retrieved November 6, 2019

Coordinates: 43 ° 48 ′ 0.7 ″  N , 10 ° 48 ′ 3.2 ″  E