Acerra massacre

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Acerra massacres occurred from October 1st to 3rd, 1943 in the city of Acerra in Campania . The city is located about 15 kilometers northeast of Naples and is part of the metropolitan city of Naples . Several units of the Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring ( Hermann Göring Division) were involved in the massacre , killing 84 people, including 7 children and 14 women.

prehistory

When on September 8, 1943 Italian armistice was announced with the Allies, was the High Command of the Armed Forces of the case axis proclaimed and occupied Italy by German troops. With the landing of the Allied forces on September 9, 1943 in Operation Avelanche on the Italian mainland near Salerno , the gradual German backward movement towards the north began. In addition to the advance of the Allies, resistance among the civilian population became more and more a problem for the German troops, also because it was fueled by squabbling recruits and deportations for work, raids against resistance fighters or sympathizers. At the end of September, during the so-called Four Days of Naples, the population of Naples rose up against the German occupation forces. In a spiral of violence there was looting and rape , whereupon the population began to organize their resistance not only in Naples. A German soldier was injured in Acerra in one of these actions at the end of September.

massacre

The Wehrmacht responded with reprisals on the morning of October 1, 1943 and set the historic center of Acerra on fire, killing numerous people. Men were captured and driven into the marketplace to then be deported to work. The interventions of the bishop, the pastor and others against the actions of the military in the city were unsuccessful.

Two partisan groups were active in the city and attacked a military vehicle on October 2, 1943. The soldiers fled. Then the population built up barricades , but a rearguard of the military came through the city with seven tanks and 50 soldiers and continued the killing. The military fired not only at the crowd that was on the main street, but also at the people who were in the courtyards and houses. Numerous people were killed, including the elderly and children. Immediate executions also took place with pistol shots in the neck or execution commands.

In a daily report on October 2, 1944, the Hermann Göring division reported : “ Clash with Italian gangs in Acerra. The area has been completely destroyed and the inhabitants exterminated. "

military

Were involved in the massacre of the Division Hermann Goering , the Parachute Regiment 1, II. Battalion of the Armored Artillery Regiment, the IX. Battalion of the Flak Panzer Regiment and the 1st Battalion of the Panzer Grenadier Regiment 2. The last three regiments were led by the combat group Karl Heinz Becker. The Hermann Göring division was formally assigned to the Luftwaffe .

Law Enforcement and Remembrance

The responsible military prosecutor in Naples investigated the massacre for the first time in 1999, followed by a second investigation in 2013. No further criminal prosecution measures were taken afterwards (as of 2019).

The city was awarded the Italian Medaglia d'oro al Merito Civile ( gold medal for civil bravery ) in 1999 for resistance in World War II . In 1976 a marble stele was erected in memory of the victims of the massacre, and in 2012 a marble plaque was unveiled at the city hall to honor the victims.

See also

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. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 .
  • Gerhard Schreiber : German war crimes in Italy - perpetrators, victims, prosecution. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-39268-7 .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Acerra 01-03.10.1943 (Italian), in Atlante delle Stragi. Retrieved November 24, 2019
  2. ↑ a b Acerra , on Memorials Europe 1939–1945. Retrieved November 24, 2019
  3. ↑ Eccidio nazista del 1943 sistemata e scoperta una lapide a memoria della strage (Italian), on 8 October 2012, on Oblò Magazine. Retrieved November 24, 2019

Coordinates: 40 ° 57 ′ 0 ″  N , 14 ° 22 ′ 0 ″  E