Cervarolo and Monchio massacres

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Memorial plaque in Cervarolo

The Monchio and Cervarolo massacres took place in March 1944, when the Wehrmacht was already withdrawing from Italy . Not only the two villages were affected, but also other hamlets and farms in their vicinity. The massacre was perpetrated by the Hermann Göring Parachute Reconnaissance Department of the Parachute Panzer Division 1 Hermann Göring . The villages and settlements are located in the northern Apennines , about 50 kilometers southwest of Bologna .

The Wehrmacht used partisan attacks as the occasion for the massacres . However, it was not about taking direct action against the partisans, but about intimidating the civilian population through killings, mistreatment and pillage.

prehistory

The massacres are said to have been preceded by a partisan attack on March 8, 1944, in which several Wehrmacht soldiers and eight Italian fascists were shot. The reconnaissance department commanded Captain Kurt-Christian von Loeben. The military operation was supposed to carry out the so-called "fight against gangs" on March 18, 1944 against 200 suspected partisans in the area of ​​Monte Santa Giulia, which is south of Reggio Emilia . The 2nd and 4th Companies and a group from the 5th Company of the Reconnaissance Division took part in the operation. Von Loeben commissioned Captain Richard Heimann to carry out the massacre.

Susano, Vallimperchio and Costrignano massacres

The massacre began with the artillery bombardment of Susano ( ⊙ ) on March 18, 1944, a village with 250 inhabitants. When the soldiers had reached the houses, they fired flares as a sign to end the bombardment of the encircled village. Then the soldiers broke into houses. They looted and forced men to carry the ammunition boxes. Anyone who refused or was too weak was shot. In Vallimperchio, a homestead near Susano, 22 people were shot, including women and children. The same happened in Costrignano ( ⊙ ). Men, especially old and weak, were shot immediately and porters after their use. In total, there were 33 people who lost their lives. Five men were shot dead in Lama di Monchio and four were forced to transport loads.

Monchio massacre

The soldiers then reached the village of Monchio ( ⊙ ). The area around the village and its hamlets were searched and the detained men were driven into a field and shot there. 20 porters and ten other men from the hamlet of San Vitale ( ⊙ ) were also shot. 67 men, one woman and four young people between the ages of 14 and 16 died in the massacre. According to Carlo Gentile , 127 people were murdered. There are higher numbers of victims in other sources. It is estimated that around 150 houses were destroyed.

Cervarolo massacre

The threshing floor in Cervarolo, where 24 men were shot
Chapel in memory of the victims of Cervarolo

Richard Heimann had also received local authority from von Loeben in Cervarolo ( ⊙ ). The reconnaissance unit Hermann Goering should perform the surgery on March 20, 1944 even though the guerrillas had left the mountainous area. The department was reinforced with eight German soldiers. In addition, “19 German and French NSKK legionaries” and 30 Italian militiamen were involved . The massacre was carried out according to the same scheme as in Monchio. The village was surrounded, the residents rounded up, detained for several hours and mistreated. In particular, the pastor of the village was tortured and humiliated. The women and children were driven out of the village with few belongings, several young women were raped and the houses were set on fire. 24 men between the ages of 17 and 84 held in the village were shot dead in a courtyard on the evening of March 20.

Judgments

The taking of evidence for the above-mentioned war crimes began in 2005, initially by the military prosecutor in La Spezia and later by the one in Verona . On July 6, 2011, the military court of Verona pronounced the verdict on 12 members of the armed forces of the parachute-tank division "Hermann Göring" for war crimes in the period from March 18 to May 5, 1944. Defendants died during the trial. Two of the accused are acquitted and seven are sentenced to life imprisonment . In addition, the convicts must pay compensation and bear the costs of the proceedings.

The defendant

The convicts were soldiers in various units of the parachute tank division "Hermann Göring" . Karl Wilke and Karl Friedrich Mess were acquitted. The defendants were not present at the trial and the judgments were never carried out. However, the judgments also provide for compensation claims against the German state. The Federal Government then successfully applied to the International Court of Justice in The Hague , the highest court of the United Nations, that the German state does not have to make any payments because of so-called "state immunity". This judgment was issued on February 3, 2012.

Remembrance and aftermath

On Monte San Giulia there is a memorial park that commemorates the victims of Monchio and the surrounding hamlets with sculptures. A memorial with the names of the victims was erected in Piazza Caduti in Monchio, and another memorial is located in the middle of a children's playground.

The destroyed farmhouse with information sign

In Susano there is a memorial stone for the massacre. On a ruined farmhouse that was destroyed by the Wehrmacht, there is a sign to the murdered farming family, including three children.

On the Strada Panoramico from Palagano to Costrignano a star memorial commemorates the victims.

At the entrance to Cervarolo there is an Italian and German-speaking plaque made of Carrara marble and a plaque with portraits of victims.

The film The Violin from Cervarolo , a narrative documentary, deals with this war crime in occupied Italy

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: Political Soldiers. The 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer-SS" in Italy in 1944. In: Sources and research from Italian archives and libraries. 81, 2001, pp. 529-561.
  • 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.)
  • Lutz Klinkhammer : Stragi naziste in Italia. Donzelli, Roma 1997, ISBN 88-7989-339-4 .
  • Luigi Leonardi: La strage nazifascista di Vinca. 24 agosto 1944. Mursia, Milan 2015, ISBN 978-88-425-5158-4 .
  • Gerhard Schreiber : German war crimes in Italy - perpetrators, victims, prosecution. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-39268-7 .

See also

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Monchio , on Memorial Sites Europe 1939–1945. Retrieved October 16, 2019
  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. 308/309
  3. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 309
  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. 310
  5. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 310
  6. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 310/311
  7. ↑ a b Trial of Verona: Shocking statements on resistancea . Retrieved October 21, 2019
  8. ^ Judgment in the war crimes trial in Verona , on resistance. Retrieved October 21, 2019
  9. ^ Judgments on soldiers of the "Hermann Göring" division passed on July 9, 2006, on AKAB. Retrieved October 22, 2019
  10. ↑ Susano , on memorial sites 1939–1945. Retrieved October 23, 2019
  11. ↑ Costrignano at memorial sites from 1939 to 1945. Retrieved October 23, 2019
  12. ↑ Cervarolo , on Memorial Sites Europe 1939–1945. Retrieved October 16, 2019