Marzabotto massacre

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Ruins and memorial of the St. Martin Church on Monte Sole, Marzabotto

The Marzabotto massacre , also known as the Monte Sole massacre , took place in the vicinity of Marzabotto . Marzabotto refers to an Apennine community near the Italian city of Bologna in Emilia-Romagna , which was the scene of a war crime by German soldiers during the Second World War in Italy. Between September 29 and October 1, 1944, units of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" and the German Wehrmacht destroyed the entire region and killed over 770 civilians, mainly old men, women and children. The list of over 770 victims contains the names and dates of birth of 213 children under the age of 13. Adult men of military age are almost completely absent from the list. In this punitive action, which was allegedly directed against partisans of the “ Stella Rossa ” group, war crimes were committed that continued to accompany the international relationship between the Federal Republic of Germany and Italy for a long time. According to the SS, the victims of the massacre were “bandits and gang helpers”.

area

The massacres and destruction took place from September 29th to 30th, 1944 on mountainous terrain between the places Grizzana and Marzabotto. This area is criss-crossed by valleys and mountains. It is a rocky plateau that rises between the river valleys of Setta and Reno . In the mountainous area there are several settlements and the city of Marzabotto, where civilians and partisans lived next to each other at that time. The 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer-SS" penetrated this area when it had to retreat at the Gothic position because of the advancing Allied forces.

prehistory

The partisan organization Stella Rosa, grossly overestimated by the SS in terms of its personnel strength, would never have been in a position to endanger the military's supply of supplies. The Waffen SS suspected that 2000 partisans were in the area. But there were a maximum of 500. The partisans controlled parts of the mountain range, the SS division the traffic routes.

There had already been several partisan attacks in July and early September, to which the military responded with countermeasures that intimidated the partisans and the population. For example, on July 22, 1944, after a partisan attack, the military took a countermeasure with 27 civilians killed. When partisans killed a soldier, six farmhouses were destroyed in retaliation, six "bandits" were shot and twelve men and eleven women were arrested. The six people shot were, however, farmers and farm workers and not partisans. Partisans shot a lieutenant and sergeant on September 12th, and 12 civilians were shot. When the SS division arrived in the area two weeks later, further raids took place. The divisional leadership refused to accept this and at the end of September prepared an "extermination company", using a term that was extremely unusual for counterpartisan measures in Italy in the military language of the German military.

massacre

The major massacres that occurred are shown below. There were numerous other killings. Initially, the number of victims was assumed to be 1830 and was used until the 1990s. Based on numerous studies, it is now assumed that 770 people were killed.

preparation

SS General Max Simon , the division commander of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer-SS" , entrusted the entire military management and preparation to Obersturmbannführer Helmut Loess , who received the order on September 28, 1944. Looß, third General Staff Officer (Ic) of the division and responsible for " fighting gangs " was already commander of Sonderkommando 7a on the Eastern Front between 1943 and 1944, and after his transfer to the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division, he was responsible for the deaths of civilians in the massacres of Fivizzano , Sant'Anna di Stazzema and other massacres in Italy. The respective commanders were responsible for leading the combat units. SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Reder , who was in charge of Panzer Reconnaissance Department 16, did not take part directly in the massacres because his knee was injured, and he directed his unit over the radio from a command post.

The exact wording of the orders to the companies is not known. Several soldiers have testified that the military leadership ordered the deliberate killing of civilians in this massacre. Reder gave verbal instructions that all those people who are in the vicinity of armed partisans should be shot.

Reder's SS Panzer Reconnaissance Department 16 provided the most important troops. She was the main actor. Furthermore, parts of the SS Panzer Regiment 35, the division escort company, Battery Flak Department 16 and SS Panzer Department 16 with their assault guns were involved. The Luftwaffe commanded parts of the Flak Regiment 105. The Army provided the IV (Russian) Battalion of Grenadier Regiment 1059 of the 362nd Infantry Division and several alarm units.

The goal was to enclose the partisans and destroy them in a concentrated attack. The action of the combat units has been described as follows: The IV (Russian) Battalion and the alarm units were supposed to cordon off the entire area. Reder's units were to advance into the center via the valley of the Setta. The other combat units mentioned above were to penetrate from the flanks.

September 29, 1944

SS Panzer Reconnaissance Department 16

The operation began at dawn on September 29th. At 9:00 am there was a violent firefight with partisans at Cadotto, with the company involved losing 20 men. These were the only losses suffered by the Reder Battalion during the entire operation. While the fight with the partisans dragged on in Cadetto, other combat groups penetrated the houses and cleared them. Women, children and old men, about 30 in number, were placed against the wall on the orders of SS-Obersturmführer Segebrecht and shot with machine guns. They made no distinction between armed partisans and civilians.

The soldiers then moved on, in Casoncella they arrested all civilians they met on their march and took them to San Giovani. When they arrived around 11:00 a.m., they drove the residents out of an air raid tunnel in which they had been hiding. They brought both groups together and shot a total of 49 civilians with machine guns, including 19 children under the age of 13.

At the Casaglia cemetery they rounded up 80 people who were shot, including 39 children. After this massacre, a group of soldiers moved on to Caprara, where they rounded up around 35 to 50 residents and locked them in a chapel. They then threw hand grenades into the room and shot them with handguns. Later on, a group of around 40 people remained unmolested on a higher-lying homestead. When a group of 10 people, two women and eight children or infants, descended into the valley from there, they were picked up and shot.

In the Cerpiano settlement, around 50 women and children were locked in a room and killed by hand grenades and gunfire. Then soldiers stayed behind as posts. They shot the injured as they tried to leave the chapel.

Commemorative plaque for the pastor Marchioni

A combat group went from Gardelletta through several villages from which residents and partisans had fled into the mountains and forests. About 100 people had fled from the villages to the church of Casaglia. They had to leave them and were held in the cemetery. The 26-year-old pastor Don Ubaldo Marchioni was asked about the whereabouts of the men and partisans. He could not provide any information and was killed. Then about 80 women and children were shot by the SS men in the cemetery. A group of SS men moved on to Capara. There, 35 to 50 people were locked in a room and killed using hand grenades and machine guns. Then they set the house on fire. Half of those killed were children.

At least six of the larger massacres and an incalculable number of smaller shootings could be assigned to Panzer Reconnaissance Department 16.

More units

While the Panzer Reconnaissance Department 16 can clearly be assigned names and actions, this is more difficult with the other units.

At the Creda farm, 70 people were shot with machine guns, almost all of them women and children. The same SS men killed eight women and four children on the Maccagnano farm and another 11 people, eight women, two children and a 72-year-old man on the Vallego farm.

There were only a few cases in which people were spared: 60 civilians were saved from being shot through the intercession of a German-speaking Italian woman.

September 30, 1944

On the morning of September 30, 1944, the killing continued as planned. SS-Obersturmführer Max Saalfrank, who had been commissioned by Reder to lead the combat groups, held a briefing with SS-Obersturmführer Wilfried Segebrecht, leader of the 1st company, Friedrich Schmidkonz, leader of the 3rd company and Rudi Vysek, who was responsible for the SS Flaka Department 16 Reder had been assigned for the duration. In the meeting it was decided to fight the partisans in the area of ​​Monte Caprara. But these had already been withdrawn. When the combat groups descended from the mountains to the town of San Martino without success, they met a group of 30 to 40 women and children who were escorted by soldiers from another unit. They were shot immediately. Another company moved to Cerpiano and swarmed from there to areas they had not yet reached. The ss Corporal Meyer, who had participated in the previous day of the murders in the chapel, shot now those who were still alive in the chapel. Anyone who was in the immediate vicinity of the city of Marzabotto was shot there by the SS. 53 people lost their lives.

On the evening of that day, the measure was considered over. The Panzer Reconnaissance Department 16 was withdrawn because it was needed on other combat segments.

October 1, 1944

But the killing didn't stop there. In the course of the operation, numerous men were arrested who were initially held in Pioppe di Salvaro near Marzabotto. Those able to work were evacuated for forced labor and around 50 people remained. Because they were too sick or too old to go to work, they were all shot dead on October 1st after handing over their outer clothing, shoes and valuables. At Canovetta di Villa d'Ignano, 20 men who had been arrested in the military operation on 29 September were shot dead.

Military reporting

The Wehrmacht reported "heavy fighting", with all the houses being converted into fortresses by the "bandits". Seven German soldiers were killed and 718 enemies were killed in these “very tough firefights” by a “doggedly defending communist gang brigade”. In reality, it was the highest number of innocent victims ever recorded in an operation of this kind in Italy.

Investigation 1944

Based on reports from the Marzabotto community and from Bologna , an investigation was carried out in autumn 1944, which Benito Mussolini and the German ambassador in Rome, Rudolf Rahn, initiated. This went without result.

Testimony from survivors

Memorial stone in the cemetery of Casaglia, Marzabotto

Only a few people managed to escape the massacre, according to Lidia Pirini from Cerpiano:

“It was nine o'clock in the morning on September 29th. When I heard of the approach of the Germans, I fled to Casaglia. I left my family and wasn't with them when she was murdered. It was my mother and my 12-year-old sister, eight cousins ​​and four aunts, who were all murdered in Cerpiano on September 29th and 30th. They injured her on the 29th. On the 30th the Nazis came back to kill them. In Casaglia we heard the Germans' shots getting closer and closer. We could see the smoke from the houses on fire. Nobody knew where to go and what to do. We ended up taking refuge in church. When the National Socialists came there, I was afraid to look them in the face. They closed the church gate and everyone inside screamed in horror. A little later they came back and took us to the cemetery. We had to line up in front of the chapel; they crouched so that they could aim well. They shot with submachine guns and rifles. I was hit by a machine gun in the right thigh and passed out on the ground. "

Elena Ruggeri managed to hide in the sacristy with her aunt, a cousin and an acquaintance, from where they could watch what was going on:

“The priest spoke German and spoke to two of them. They kept laughing and pointing at their rifles, and because the priest persisted, they shot him in front of the altar. I had one hand pressed over my cousin Giorgio's mouth for fear that he would scream. They also murdered a woman who was paralyzed and couldn't move. "

Adelmo Benini had to watch from the mountain what was happening down in Casaglia:

“Full of panic, we discovered that the Nazis by no means spared women and children. You could see it when they chased her to the cemetery with kicks and kicks. We saw how they shot open the gate to the cemetery and crammed them all together on the steps to the chapel, the big ones in the back, the little ones in front; when I noticed how they were aiming their machine guns, I threw myself down the ridge and shouted the names of mine, (...). I could see them firing submachine guns and rifles into the middle of the innocent. They threw hand grenades and the soldiers killed individuals who were still alive and complained. "

Not far from the Casaglia church was the Cerpiano prayer room. The SS imprisoned 49 people here, including 19 children. Shortly after their arrival, the SS threw hand grenades into the prayer room. 30 people died instantly. Eight-year-old Fernando Piretti was still alive. Because he believed the National Socialists had withdrawn, he pulled six-year-old Paola Rossi from under her mother's dead body, who had saved her from death. But the National Socialists came back the next morning to kill the survivors with targeted shots. The third survivor, the teacher Antonietta Benni, managed to hide the two children under a blanket just in time. She reports:

“We were hoping they wouldn't harm us. Instead, the door opened after a short time and some Nazis appeared with terrifying faces. They carried hand grenades in their hands and they looked at us as if they were looking for their prey (...). Then hand grenades flew through the door and the windows: we screamed, cried, pleaded, the mothers held their children, protected their faces and desperately sought protection. I passed out on the floor. "

- All quotations: Giorgi, Marzabotto parla

war criminal

Two commanders of the SS division responsible for the murders were convicted. The head of the criminal action, SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Reder , was sentenced to life imprisonment in Bologna in 1951 , pardoned in January 1985 and died in Vienna in 1991. SS-Gruppenführer Max Simon was sentenced to death in Padua and pardoned in 1954. In January 2007 ten SS members - Paul Albers , Josef Baumann , Hubert Bichler , Max Roithmeier (†) Max Schneider , Heinz Fritz Traeger († 2010), Georg Wache , Helmut Wulf , Adolf were found after the discovery of the " Schranks der Schande " Schneider and Kurt Spieler were sentenced in absentia to life imprisonment and compensation payments of 100 million euros by a military court in La Spezia , and seven other defendants were acquitted. However, an appeals court in Rome overturned this judgment in 2008 and found all of the defendants guilty; Presence at the scene of the crime and possession of a rank that generally grants authority is sufficient for a conviction. As a result of the trial, the Munich I Public Prosecutor's Office opened an investigation, which was discontinued on April 27, 2009 without charge being brought.

The initiative to bring charges in the case of Sant'Anna accused the public prosecutor of "investigative protection of perpetrators".

The SS-Unterführer Wilhelm Ernst Kusterer , who was initially acquitted in La Spezia, was sentenced to life imprisonment and payment of damages in the 2008 appeal proceedings for manslaughter. He was represented by a lawyer, but did not appear at the trial and did not appeal. The judgment against him has been final since 2008. The judgment of the Italian judiciary cannot be enforced in Germany. In March 2016 it became known from a press article that Kusterer still lives in his home community in Engelsbrand , Baden-Württemberg , and had received a medal of honor for his commitment to the community about a year earlier. Since July 2013, the Stuttgart public prosecutor's office has been investigating him on suspicion of murder. Media reported in June 2016, citing the Associated Press , that the case against Kusterer had been dropped.

Assessment and commemoration

Until recently, the Marzabotto massacre is considered to be the most serious war crime on Italian soil.

In memory of the massacre, the Parco Storico di Monte Sole ( Monte Sole Historical Park ) was established in Marzabotto . A tour is about four kilometers long. In the “Fondazione Scuola di Pace di Monte Sole” peace school, not only young people from Italy and Germany, but also from Israel and Palestine meet periodically. There the youth should be able to show that understanding is possible even after the most gruesome crimes.

Speech by the German President Johannes Rau

The commemoration of the German President Johannes Rau to the victims of Marzabotto during a visit in 2002 in Italy with the genuflection of Willy Brandt been compared in 1970 in Warsaw. The Mayor of Marzabotto spoke of a "great gesture of reconciliation, friendship and peace".

Visit to the memorial of Federal Foreign Minister Heiko Maas

The German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas took part in a commemoration ceremony for the victims of the massacre of German soldiers in 1944 in Marzabotto on September 30, 2018. Together with his Italian colleague Moavero Milanesi , he laid a wreath at the memorial.

Report of a historians' commission (2012)

On March 28, 2009, the then foreign ministers of Italy and Germany set up a commission made up of historians from both countries. This presented a 182-page final report in 2012. In the appendix, 5000 cases are documented in which there were attacks (e.g. looting, rape and murder) by German troops.

See also

literature

  • Carlo Gentile : Marzabotto. In: Gerd R. Ueberschär (Ed.): Places of horror. Crimes in World War II. Darmstadt 2003, pp. 136-146.
  • 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: War of Extermination in the West. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung. January 7, 2003, p. 14.
  • Carlo Gentile: Walter Reder - a political soldier in the "gang fight". In: Klaus-Michael Mallmann , Gerhard Paul (Ed.): Careers of violence. National Socialist perpetrator biographies. (Publications by the Ludwigsburg Research Center at the University of Stuttgart. Volume 2.) Darmstadt 2004, pp. 188–195.
  • Renato Giorgi: Marzabotto parla. 15th edition. Marsilio, Venice 1999. (German Marzabotto speaks. East Berlin 1958.)
  • Lutz Klinkhammer : Stragi naziste in Italia. Donzelli, Roma 1997, pp. 118-141.
  • Jack Olsen: Silence sur le Monte Sole. 1968.
  • Gerhard Schreiber: German war crimes in Italy - perpetrators, victims, prosecution. Beck, Munich 1996, ISBN 3-406-39268-7 .
  • Joachim Staron: Fosse Ardeatine and Marzabotto: German war crimes and resistance; History and national myth-making in Germany and Italy (1944-1999). Schöningh, Paderborn 2002, ISBN 3-506-77522-7 .
  • Dante Zanini: Marzabotto e dintorni 1944. Bologna 1996.

Web links

Commons : Marzabotto Massacre  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 238.
  2. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 239.
  3. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 250.
  4. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 239/240.
  5. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 239.
  6. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 240 and 241.
  7. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 239.
  8. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 240.
  9. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 239/246.
  10. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 246/247.
  11. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 248.
  12. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 249.
  13. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 250.
  14. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 238.
  15. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945. Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 250.
  16. ↑ on Fivizzano, Fosdinovo and Casalecchio sul Reno , on resistance. Retrieved September 23, 2019.
  17. ^ Elisabeth Zimmermann: Late atonement for the SS massacre in Marzabotto. In: World Socialist , January 24, 2007
  18. ↑ a b Alexander Heilemann: Marzabotto massacre: struggle for justice. In: Pforzheimer Zeitung. March 8, 2016, accessed March 9, 2016 .
  19. ↑ Marzabotto: Ten former SS soldiers sentenced to life imprisonment. ( Memento of the original from November 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: resistenza.de @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / resistenza.de
  20. ^ Paul Kreiner: The Engelsbrand community honors a war criminal; Because they don't know what they're doing. In: Der Tagesspiegel. March 8, 2016, accessed March 9, 2016 .
  21. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: SS massacre of Marzabotto: An honorary citizen and his dark secret. In: Spiegel Online. March 9, 2016, accessed March 9, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Hans-Jürgen Schlamp: War criminal as honorary citizen: Scandal of Engelsbrand proves failure of the judiciary. Spiegel Online, March 10, 2016, accessed March 10, 2016 .
  23. ^ German prosecutors drop case against Nazi war crimes suspect. In: The Times of Israel . Associated Press, June 30, 2016, accessed October 29, 2017 .
  24. ^ Tassilo Pfitzenmeier: SS man from Engelsbrand classified as incapable of negotiating. In: Pforzheimer Kurier . June 29, 2016. Retrieved October 30, 2017 .
  25. ^ Medal of merits for SS-moordenaar. In: Algemeen Dagblad . March 9, 2016, accessed October 31, 2017 .
  26. ^ Address by Federal President Johannes Rau in Marzabotto on April 17, 2002
  27. ↑ Deutschlandfunk: Maas commemorates the victims of a massacre by German soldiers in 1944
  28. ↑ Final report. Homepage of Villa Vigoni (PDF).

Coordinates: 44 ° 18 ′ 37 ″  N , 11 ° 13 ′ 11 ″  E