Pazin massacre

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The Pazin massacre took place on October 4, 1943 in the city ​​of Pazin ( Italian: Pisino ) in the province of Pola, which has belonged to the Kingdom of Italy since 1924 . The city, which has been in Croatia since 1991 , was at the time in the Adriatic Coastal Area of Operations (OAK), in which the Wehrmacht and the SS subordinate police of the Reich area, together with a German-Italian civil administration, exercised power. The Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler killed 157 people in the massacre .

prehistory

Operation Zone Adreatic Coastal Land (red)

The OAK came into being when the Badoglio government announced the armistice with the Allies on September 8, 1943 and the fall of the Axis and the occupation of Italy by German troops began. The German Empire established Benito Mussolini in northern Italy the Italian Social Republic (RSI) as a fascist satellite state . From this puppet state, the German Reich separated two operational zones in the north-east of what was then Italy, the borders of which were not based on states, but on military requirements. The OAK extended roughly from Udine to Laibach .

massacre

Since the Wehrmacht had only recently occupied the area, they feared a strengthening of liberation movements that could turn against them. In addition, she feared that the Allies would land on the northern Adriatic , form a bridgehead and unite with the partisans .

On behalf of the Waffen-SS , 13 Stukas dropped bombs over the entire city on October 4, 1943 at around 11:00 a.m. When the bombing began, people tried to flee the city, killing numerous people. When the bombing stopped around noon, tanks advanced. When they reached the first houses, violent counterfire hit them. As a result, tanks shot at the houses, which began to burn. Those who fled the houses were shot down with machine guns . Any resistance led to renewed tank bombardment and the tank column continued its advance towards the city center. On October 5, 1943, the Wehrmacht announced that 157 "bandits" had been killed. Mainly innocent civilians and no partisans who were described by the Wehrmacht as bandits were probably killed.

literature

See also

List of massacres during the German occupation of Italy

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Pazin (Pisino) October 4, 1943 (Italian). Retrieved November 9, 2019.

Coordinates: 45 ° 14 ′ 20.8 ″  N , 13 ° 56 ′ 18.8 ″  E