Massacre of Massa

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The Massa massacres occurred on September 10, 1944 in the Italian city of Massa in Tuscany and on September 16, 1944 on the Frigido River. On September 10, 42 people were murdered in different places in the city and on September 16, 147 or 149 people in the San Leonardo district on the orographically right side of the river Frigido by members of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" .

prehistory

During the Second World War , the offensive of the Allied forces on the eastern Goths on the Italian Adriatic coast and in the eastern Apennines began at the end of August 1944 . The Allied advance also continued on the western section of the front. The US troops liberated Pisa on September 2 and the city of Lucca , which is not far from Massa , on September 7 . In view of the advance of the Allies, the German military ordered the expulsion of the entire population of Massa on September 2, 1944. All residents of the city should leave the city and make their way to Parma .

Massacre in the city of Massa

On September 10, 1944, 42 people were shot dead in the city of Massa. This retaliation was carried out because partisans had killed six militiamen of the fascist paramilitary Brigate Nere from Carrara near Colonnata .

Most of those shot were civilians who had survived the massacre of September 2, 1944 in the Carthusian monastery Farneta of the Waffen-SS under the command of Hermann Langer . They came to the prison in Massa with the withdrawal movements of the SS troops . Among the victims who were shot in groups at different locations in Massa by SS men of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" were 15 clergymen, the mayor of Lucca , the police chief of Livorno and the chief physician of the psychiatric clinic of Lucca.

Massacre on Frigido

Malaspina Castle, which served as a prison

The prisoners from the prison, which was located next to the train station, were transferred to the Malaspina City Palace because of ongoing attacks by the partisans and Allied bombing of the train station . In addition to those already incarcerated, 80 new prisoners were added in the first eight days of September. They were mainly political prisoners from Livorno , Pisa and Lucca. The prison was overcrowded. Not only was there a shortage of drinking water and food, but hygiene was also catastrophic. On September 14th, the SS took over the administration of the prison with 168 registered prisoners. On the morning of September 16, around 150 prisoners were transported on trucks to the right bank of the Frigido near the small church of San Leonardo. Many of them were old and sometimes sick, had to be carried on stretchers or walked with crutches. There were three bomb craters near the river. The prisoners had to go into this to be shot afterwards. The massacre was hidden and the dead were covered with earth. The number of confirmed deaths varies between 147 and 149. It is known that three prisoners were spared because they worked for the SS commander. The dead came from more than 60 Italian provinces, some from Albania, Greece, Libya and Switzerland.

Most of those murdered were ordinary prisoners who had violated the occupation rules for minor offenses and were sent to prison for this reason. For example, a murdered woman was in prison for illegally slaughtering a pig. There were also political prisoners and deserters among those shot. In September 1945, isolated bodies from the massacre were discovered and buried again. Only in the course of a construction project in 1947 was the extent of the massacre discovered and the prison chaplain was able to identify victims. It could not be confirmed that the massacre was preceded by one or more partisan attacks. Members of the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division “Reichsführer SS”, which had already carried out comparable massacres on Lake Massaciuccoli and Ripafratta, were responsible for the massacre .

Commemoration

A memorial with all the names of the victims stands behind the Romanesque church of San Leonardo near the river bank. Gravestones of the victims are next to the church as well as a stele .

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.)

See also

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. 233
  2. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 234/235
  3. ↑ Rastrellamenti e stragi , on Resistenza Apuana. Retrieved September 16, 2019
  4. ↑ a b c San Leonardo al Frigido Massa September 16, 1944 (Massa-Carrara - Toscana) (Italian), on Stragi Nazifasciste, accessed on September 16, 2019
  5. ^ Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . Pp. 235/236

Coordinates: 44 ° 1 '28 "  N , 10 ° 7' 0.7"  E