Rodolfo Graziani

Rodolfo Graziani 1940.

Rodolfo Graziani , Margrave of Neghelli (born August 11, 1882 in Filettino , province of Frosinone , † January 11, 1955 in Rome ) was a leading Italian general (from 1936 marshal ) and politician during the rule of Italian fascism .

Graziani gained notoriety for his role in the Second Italian-Libyan War (1922-1932), where he was one of the chiefs responsible for the fascist genocide in Cyrenaica as Vice Governor (1930-1934) . Then he was briefly governor of Italian Somaliland (1935-1936) and as such commander in chief of the southern invasion troops in the Italian war of aggression against the Abyssinian Empire . The units commanded by Graziani used poison gas systematically and across the board . During his subsequent tenure as viceroy of Italian East Africa , Graziani established an occupation regime based on terror . As governor-general of Italian Libya (1940-1941), Graziani led the failed invasion of Egypt after fascist Italy entered World War II, which resulted in Mussolini falling out of favor. Only after the fall of the Mussolini regime and the founding of the fascist republic of Salò did Graziani act as its defense minister (1943–1945) and collaborate with the German occupation forces.

The United Nations War Crimes Commission listed Graziani as one of the greatest Italian war criminals . After the Second World War, both the Abyssinian Empire and the Kingdom of Libya demanded his extradition. However, he was never prosecuted for war crimes committed in Africa. Graziani was initially sentenced to 19 years in prison for his collaboration with Nazi Germany , but was pardoned after four months.

Early years

Rodolfo Graziani was supposed to become a priest at the father's request , but finally the son decided on the career of an officer . Since the way through the Military Academy of Modena was closed to him, he initially served as a temporary officer. a. with the 1st regiment of the Granatieri di Sardegna in Rome.

From 1908 he served as a colonial officer in Eritrea , where he learned Arabic and Tigrinya , which should be useful for his later career in Africa . In 1911 his life was in danger for a long time after a poisonous snake bite.

In 1912 he took part as an infantry officer in the Italo -Turkish War , in which Libya with its two parts of the country Cyrenaica and Tripolitania was occupied by Italy and annexed as a colony of Italian Libya.

First World War

From 1915 on he again took part in the First World War as an infantry officer . He distinguished himself on the Isonzo - and later the Piave front - and was subsequently promoted several times. In 1918, at the age of 36, he was promoted to the youngest colonel in the Italian army.

Colonial Wars and War Crimes

War and genocide in Libya

Graziani as viceroy of Italian East Africa in Mogadishu (1937).

As the youngest colonel in the Italian army came to Libya in October 1921, Graziani earned most of his merit in the conquest of Tripolitania and in 1929/30 also in the occupation of Fezzan . As a counter- guerrilla specialist, he modernized the methods of desert warfare and relied not only on rapidly advancing formations with armored vehicles that were supported from the air, but also on uninhibited brutality. Notorious for his adherence to fascist principles, Graziani made a reputation for himself as an “Arab butcher” and repeatedly ordered mass executions. After Mussolini had appointed him lieutenant governor of Cyrenaica in the spring of 1930 , Graziani also set about "pacifying" the Libyan part of the country according to the tried and tested model . In a letter to Governor General Pietro Badoglio , he compared the situation in the unrest region with a "boil" that should be mercilessly cut out so that the infected body could recover.

In 1930 Graziani had 100,000 people from Cyrenaica - half of the total population there - deported to concentration camps in Libya on the orders of Governor General Badoglio . Around 10% of the deportees did not survive the rigors of the deportations, at least 40,000 more died between 1930 and 1933 in the fascist concentration camps. This period of the Italian colonial war is classified as genocide by numerous historians . In total, around 100,000 Libyans fell victim to the fascist reconquest of Libya between 1923 and 1933.

(See also: Italian war crimes in Libya )

Use of poison gas and massacre in Ethiopia

Graziani as Viceroy of Italian East Africa in Addis Ababa (1937).

From 1935 to 1936 Graziani took part in the Italo -Ethiopian War and commanded the units that attacked Abyssinia from Italian Somaliland . After the conquest of Harar , Mussolini made him Marshal of Italy and Marchese di Neghelli . As a war goal he called the "complete annihilation of the Abyssinian leadership and elites" and urged General Guglielmo Nasi, military governor of Harar, to carry out this mission "completely" in his area of ​​command. In a telegram sent to General Bernasconi on January 10, 1936, Graziani expressed his satisfaction with the success of the month before he had ordered the use of mustard gas and phosgene . In May 1936, as commander-in-chief of the Southern Army, he ordered all "rebels" captured to be shot. Since Pietro Badoglio, who had headed the overall operations in this war, had renounced the office of viceroy of Ethiopia, Graziani took over this post. On February 19, 1937, he was the target of an attack in which seven people were killed and about 50 others were injured. Graziani himself was largely unharmed. As a result, he had thousands murdered in "reprisals". 500 monks, deacons and lay people were killed in the Däbrä Libanos monastery. (See also: Italian war crimes in Ethiopia )

Second World War

Marshal Graziani 1940.

Rodolfo Graziani (2nd from right) at the funeral of the Italian police chief Arturo Bocchini. From left to right: SS-Obergruppenführer Karl Wolff , SS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich , Adelchi Serena , Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler , Marshal Emilio De Bono , Graziani and Ambassador Hans Georg von Mackensen

In November 1939, after the beginning of the Second World War, Mussolini appointed Graziani Chief of Staff of the Army and (after Air Marshal Italo Balbo's sudden death in mid-1940) also Governor General in Libya and thus Commander-in-Chief of the Italian troops in North Africa. In addition, Graziani personally led the 10th Army (Italian 10ª Armata) in north-east Libya, while Italo Gariboldi's 5th Army in the north-west was subordinate to him. Because of this accumulation of offices, Graziani could not take care of the Army General Staff in Rome. His long-standing adversary Badoglio was head of the Comando Supremo , but this staff lacked the necessary infrastructure, which is why he often had to rely on the army general staff of the absent Graziani. Although Graziani was a staunch fascist, he was at the same time (like Balbo and Armaments Commissioner Carlo Favagrossa ) against an Italian entry into the war on Hitler's side . With all sorts of pretexts he delayed the attack on the British in Egypt ordered by Mussolini until the latter threatened to depose him.

Under Graziani's leadership, four of the ten hardly motorized divisions of the 10th Italian Army attacked Egypt together with a lightly armored combat group and advanced to Sidi el Barrani , where they stopped because of alleged supply problems and water shortages. For political reasons, Mussolini forbade the transfer of the motorized and armored Italian divisions from the Po Valley to North Africa, where they would have been the only usable forces in this region. Graziani's many years of experience in suppressing insurrections and in waging colonial wars had a significant influence on his conduct of operations, although he did not fully recognize that he had to wage a European war in the African desert according to completely new criteria. The counterattack by the British tank units on Graziani's unmotivated foot soldiers (→ Operation Compass ) quickly led to the collapse of the 10th Army and the deployment of the German Africa Corps under Erwin Rommel . The few motorized and armored Italian formations were finally relocated to North Africa. Graziani returned to Italy in February 1941, where he was also relieved of his post as Chief of the Army General Staff (successor: Mario Roatta ) and an immediate investigation into him was initiated. Until Mussolini's arrest in July 1943, he was no longer given any command. Mussolini made him head of the Defense Ministry and the supreme command of his troops in his remaining fascist republic in northern Italy . This fueled the resistance of the Resistance ; Italian society was deeply divided.

From his headquarters he commanded the Italian units fighting on the German side until the Allies had occupied large parts of northern Italy and resistance was hardly possible. Despite the hopeless situation, he did not think of surrender until the end, but had those unwilling to go to war executed. On April 29, 1945, the day after Mussolini was shot by partisans, Graziani surrendered to US troops in Milan . On the same day, as Marshal of Italy, together with SS-Obergruppenführer and General of the Waffen-SS Karl Wolff as "Plenipotentiary General of the German Wehrmacht in Italy", he signed the Armistice of Caserta , which marked the surrender of all German and Republican-Italian armed forces in the north of the Landes took effect on the night of May 2 to 3, 1945.

Wording of the adjacent power of attorney

Translation Ministero delle Forze Armato Segreteria Militare April 26, 1945 / XXIII     I hereby authorize Marshal of Italy, Rodolfo G raziani, in my capacity as Italian Minister of War , the Supreme SS and Police Leader and Plenipotentiary General of the German Wehrmacht in Italy, General of the Waffen SS,   Karl Wolff, to conduct negotiations for me and the gl i calibrate conditions as for the German armed forces in Italy concerning me binding agreements. all regular troops of the Italian army, Air force and Navy n well _  as the military-fascist organizations to respond. The Marshal of Italy signed Rodolfo Graziani Graziani        I hereby assign the above power of attorney to my chief adjutant Major Wenner.     Wolff 27.IV.1945 Plenipotentiary General of the       German Wehrmacht in Italy

Graziani's power of attorney for the surrender of Caserta, signed by the Plenipotentiary General of the German Wehrmacht in Italy, Karl Wolff, on April 27, 1945

War crimes charges

In prison, first in US custody and later in Italian custody, Graziani wrote several books in which he defended his "service to the fatherland". Notwithstanding the evidence presented by the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC) of the war crimes ordered by Graziani, the British government prevented the Ethiopian government from extraditing Graziani for criminal proceedings in an Ethiopian court. On October 11, 1948, a Roman court declared that it had no jurisdiction. On May 2, 1950, a military tribunal finally sentenced Graziani to 19 years imprisonment "for military collaboration with the Germans" (not for his crimes in Africa). But after serving only four months of that, he was pardoned that same year .

Last years

In the early 1950s Graziani joined the neo-fascist Movimento Sociale Italiano (MSI) and tried to help the fascist idea to a renaissance. After party quarrels, he withdrew into private life and died in Rome in early 1955.

Graziani worship in Italy today

On August 11, 2012 in Affile in the Lazio region in the Parco di Radimonte, a mausoleum was inaugurated in honor of Graziani in the presence of neo-fascist citizens and the mayor Ercole Viri, which was built with subsidies from the region and the municipality . In April 2013, the newly elected President of the Lazio Region Nicola Zingaretti ( PD ) stopped funding the region for the monument. There was no longer any question of reclaiming the money that had already been largely spent or of demolishing it, as his party called for.

literature

• Amedeo Osti Guerrazzi: Rodolfo Graziani. Career and worldview of a fascist general. In: Christian Hartmann (ed.): From generals and private. On the biographical dimension of the Second World War. De Gruyter, Oldenbourg, 2008, ISBN 978-3-486-58144-7 , pp. 21-32.
• Giuseppe Mayda: Graziani l'Africano. Since Neghelli a Salò . Florence 1992, ISBN 88-221-1062-5 .
• Angelo del Boca: I gas di Mussolini. Il fascismo e la guerra d'Etiopia. Rome 1996, ISBN 88-359-4091-5 .
• Asfa-Wossen Asserate , Aram Mattioli (ed.): The first fascist war of annihilation. The Italian aggression against Ethiopia 1935–1941. SH-Verlag, Cologne 2006, ISBN 3-89498-162-8 .

Web links

Commons : Rodolfo Graziani  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Literature by and about Rodolfo Graziani in the catalog of the German National Library
• Newspaper article about Rodolfo Graziani in the 20th century press kit of the ZBW - Leibniz Information Center for Economics .
• Italian newspaper report on the mausoleum

Individual evidence

1. ^ Aram Mattioli: The forgotten colonial crimes of Fascist Italy in Libya 1923-1933. P. 215f.
2. ^ Richard Pankhurst: Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia. A History of Their Discussion, from the League of Nations to the United Nations (1936-1949) . In: Northeast African Studies. ISSN  0740-9133 . Vol. 6, No. 1-2, 1999 (New Series), No. 1-2, pp. 83-140, citation p. 127.
3. ↑ Comando delle Forze Armate della Somalia (ed.): La guerra italo-etiopica. Front south . Volume 3. Addis Ababa 1937. p. 401 (Document No. 313).
4. ↑ Aram Mattioli : A veritable hell. Poison gas and pogroms. Italy's unprecedented reign of terror over Ethiopia ended 60 years ago . In: Die Zeit, December 13, 2001, p. 92.
5. ↑ Département de la Presse et de l'Information du Gouvernement Impérial d'Éthiopie (ed.): La Civilization de l'Italie fasciste en Ethiopie . 2 volumes. Addis Ababa 1948. Therein - each in a comparison of the Italian original and the French translation - documents on war crimes ordered by Graziani.
6. ↑ Denise Eeckaute-Bardery: La guerre d'Éthiopie et l'opinion mondiale . In: Matériaux pour l'histoire de notre temps. ISSN  0769-3206 . Volume 1986, No. 7/8, pp. 31-35, here p. 32.
7. ↑ Dirk Schlümer : The mausoleum of a disgusting person in: FAZ from August 14, 2012, p. 27. ( FAZ archive )
8. ^ Richard Pankhurst: Italian Fascist War Crimes in Ethiopia. A History of Their Discussion, from the League of Nations to the United Nations (1936-1949) . In: Northeast African Studies. ISSN  0740-9133 . Vol. 6, Number 1-2, 1999 (New Series), No. 1-2, pp. 83-140.
9. ↑ Angelo del Boca: Graziani, Rodolfo . In: Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani. Volume 58: Gonzales - Graziani . Rome 2002.
10. ↑ Dirk Schlümer: The mausoleum of a disgusting person in: FAZ of August 14, 2012, p. 27.
11. ↑ Berthold Seewald: Mussolini's viceroy devastated half of Ethiopia. Die Welt , accessed June 1, 2013 . 
12. ↑ Svolta ad Affile, Zingaretti annuncia: "Stop ai Fondi per il mausoleo di Graziani". La Repubblica , April 22, 2013, accessed June 1, 2013 .