Bergiola Foscalina massacre

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Carrara marble monument commemorating the massacre in Bergiola Foscalina

The Bergiola Foscalina massacre took place in a district of Carrara in the Italian province of Massa-Carrara in Tuscany on September 16, 1944. 61 people were killed in this massacre, including 24 children, 28 women and 9 men; other sources name 71 and 72 murdered people, respectively.

prehistory

The area around Carrara was of particular strategic importance for the German military and was part of the western section of the so-called Gothic position . The latter formed a deeply staggered defense line, which consisted of several non-continuous defensive positions and crossed the Italian peninsula from Versilia on the Tyrrhenian Sea to Pesaro on the Adriatic Sea . The construction of this line began as early as autumn 1943 after the armistice in Cassibile and the expansion under the command of General Gustav-Adolf von Zangen accelerated considerably from the beginning of 1944. The shortage of workers and the difficult terrain nevertheless caused delays. Increasingly, however, acts of sabotage by partisans also represented serious security problems which attempts were made to counter.

Along the Goths, numerous war crimes against civilians were committed by German and Italian troops of the fascist puppet state of the Repubblica Sociale Italiana (RSI), which were closely related to the importance of this line of defense. The two Italian regions of Tuscany and Emilia-Romagna were led by the position, the two Italian regions that had the most victims of war crimes in Italy. Of the 15 massacres with more than 100 victims that were recorded in Italy during the Second World War, five took place in the vicinity of the Gothic position. Especially after the Allies began to attack the Goths from the end of August 1944, there was also an escalation of violence against the local population, who were viewed by the Germans as potential collaborators with the partisans. Some historians even go so far as to claim that a real war against civilians was waged for control of this strategically important area.

At the beginning of September 1944, preparations began for the German armed forces to withdraw along the Goths. Associated with this was increased partisan activity, which saw itself strengthened in view of the imminent liberation by US forces. The partisan attacks rose sharply in the middle of September and the SS responded with numerous mass shootings.

massacre

When on the afternoon of September 16, 1944, a German soldier from the reconnaissance department of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" was shot near the hamlet of La Foce , the German crew assumed that the shooter came from Bergiola Foscalina. The killed soldier served in the infantry gun platoon of the 5th reconnaissance unit of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division. About two hours after the incident, the SS unit, which was subordinate to SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Reder , drove together with the Italian 40th Black Brigade “Vittorio Ricciarelli” from Livorno under the command of Colonel Guido Ludovici, 30 residents in the local school together. The prisoners took them to the local school building, set it on fire, and shot the victims with machine guns. Believing that they would be the targets of retaliation, the local men fled to the nearby mountains of the Apuan Alps after the single shot . Numerous other residents were also murdered when their homes were locked and set on fire. Partisan groups in the Carrara area have been informed of the incident. But when they arrived in Bergiola Foscalina about an hour after the massacre, the perpetrators had already withdrawn and they could only help the injured, put out fires and rescue the murdered.

Vincenzo Giudice, an officer of the Guardia di Finanza , who lives in this place , was shot with the hostages, his wife and daughter, although he had offered to shoot him instead of the hostages. He was posthumously awarded the Golden Medal of Valor of Italy.

Commemoration

Commemorative plaque at the school of Bergiola Foscalina

There are several memorials made of Carrara marble to commemorate the massacre: a memorial to the murdered, a plaque on the school and another memorial to Vincenzo Giudice. There is also another marble monument in the hamlet of La Foce , which was erected 10 years after the massacre.

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 .
  • Chiara Donati, Maurizio Fiorillo: Le stragi sulla linea Gotica. In: Gianluca Fulvetti , Paolo Pezzino (eds.): Zone di guerra, geografie di sangue. L'atlante delle stragi naziste e fasciste in Italia (1943–1945). il Mulino, Bologna 2016 ISBN 978-88-15-26788-7 .
  • 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.)
  • Gerhard Schreiber : German war crimes in Italy - perpetrators, victims, prosecution. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-39268-7 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Episodio Bergiola Foscalina Carrara September 16, 1944 (PDF), (Italian), on Stragi Nazifasciste. Retrieved September 5, 2019
  2. ↑ La commemorazione della strage di Bergiola Foscalina (Italian), from September 15, 2015, on Commune di Carrara
  3. ↑ Bergiola Foscalina Carara September 16, 1944 (Massa-Carrara-Toscana) (Italian), on Stragi Nazifasciste. Retrieved September 5, 2019
  4. ↑ La commemorazione della strage di Bergiola Foscalina (Italian), from September 15, 2015, on Comune di Carrara. Retrieved September 5, 2019
  5. ↑ a b c d e Bergiola Foscalina , on Memorial Sites Europe (1939–1945). Retrieved September 3, 2019
  6. ↑ The biggest massacre in Italy , on Resistenza. Retrieved September 5, 2019
  7. ^ Chiara Donati, Maurizio Fiorillo: Le stragi sulla linea Gotica. Pp. 299-300
  8. ^ Chiara Donati, Maurizio Fiorillo: Le stragi sulla linea Gotica. Pp. 300-301
  9. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 234
  10. ↑ Carrara, Bergiola Foscalina - 16 Settembre 1944 (Italian), on Resistance Apuana. Retrieved September 3, 2019
  11. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 236
  12. ↑ 16 September 1944: Bergiola Foscalina (MS) in Italian, on Storie Dimenticate. Retrieved September 3, 2019
  13. ↑ Cippo della scuola di Bergiola Foscalina (Italian), in Toscana Restistenza. Retrieved September 3, 2019
  14. ↑ Vecchio Cippo della Foce (Italian), on Resistenza Toscana. accessed on September 3, 2019

Coordinates: 44 ° 4 ′ 0.1 ″  N , 10 ° 7 ′ 27.5 ″  E