Salvo D'Acquisto
Salvo D'Acquisto (born October 15, 1920 in Naples , † September 23, 1943 in Torre di Palidoro ) was a non-commissioned officer in the Italian Carabinieri . He sacrificed his life for 22 civilians who were to be shot by the German 2nd Paratrooper Division as a repression against resistance fighters .
Life
D'Acquisto joined the Carabinieri force as a volunteer in 1939 and took part in the war in North Africa , where he was also wounded. After his recovery he completed a non-commissioned officer course and then served in the Carabinieri station of Torre in Pietra near Rome ( Via Aurelia ).
When Italy left the war on September 8, 1943, German troops occupied the country, against which Italian partisans and resistance groups ( Resistancea ) took up the fight. On September 22, 1943, German soldiers searched some ammunition boxes (probably left behind by the Guardia di Finanza ) near the town of Torre di Palidoro, which fell under the jurisdiction of the Carabinieri station of Torre in Pietra. During a search of an ammunition box, a hand grenade exploded , killing a German soldier and injuring several others.
The commander of the German paratroopers then made unspecified local insurgents responsible for this " attack " and requested Carabinieri. Since the station manager of Torre in Pietra was unable to attend, D'Acquisto led the investigation as his deputy and came to the conclusion that the explosion must have been an accident . The German commander, however, insisted on his attack theory and ordered reprisals against the civilian population according to an order from Kesselring a few days ago .
After a brief raid , 22 randomly selected people from the surrounding farms were rounded up, whom D'Acquisto had to briefly question on German orders . After all 22 had declared themselves innocent, they demanded that the people behind them be revealed. When there was no result here either after insults and fights against D'Acquisto, it was decided to shoot the prisoners who, together with D'Acquisto, had to immediately dig a mass grave .
In order to save the 22 people from death , D'Acquisto accused himself of the alleged attack. He emphasized that he was solely responsible for the attack and that he had prepared it without outside help. He called for the immediate release of all 22 prisoners. The German commander agreed.
D'Acquisto died at the age of 22. He rests today in the Church of Santa Chiara in Naples .
Honors
For his deed he was posthumously awarded the highest Italian military order ( gold medal for military valor ). The Vatican has been examining his beatification for several years . A barracks in Rome ( Caserma Salvo D'Acquisto in Tor di Quinto ) and a military school in Velletri have since been named after Acquisto . The carabiniere's selfless act was publicly propagated in a film (1974), in an opera passage (2002) and in a TV series (2003). In Naples , he was set a modernly designed monument in the 21st century: a perforated steel plate symbolizes the herded people, before that is larger than life, a human being and protects with his body the other. In Bozen's Roseggerpark , a statue designed by David Moroder has been commemorating Salvo D'Acquisto since 1990 .
Individual evidence
- ↑ Carlo Gentile - ITINERARI DI GUERRA: LA PRESENZA DELLE TROOP Tedesche NEL LAZIO Occupato 1943-1944
- ↑ Discovered and photographed during a city tour in May 2010 in front of the Assitalia insurance building.
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | D'Acquisto, Salvo |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Italian military, NCO of the Italian Carabinieri |
| DATE OF BIRTH | October 15, 1920 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Naples |
| DATE OF DEATH | September 23, 1943 |
| Place of death | Torre di Palidoro |