Page 41 - NONOSTANTE IL LUNGO TEMPO TRASCORSO…Le stragi nazifasciste nella guerra di liberazione 1943–1945

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the historical archives of the Italian Army and The story of the nazi rage in Italy is comple-
Carabinieri Corps, the National Association “Di- ted by documents concerning the crimes com-
visione Acqui”, the National Association of For- mitted against civilians, women and men, inclu-
mer War Prisoners, the National Association of ding elderly people and children, that turned into
Italian Partisans, the National Institute “Ferruc- massacres against the defenceless population.
cio Parri” (Rete degli Istituti per la storia della In this case too we can find the latest results in
Resistenza e dell’età contemporanea), the Sho- terms of historical research that investigated
ah Museum in Rome, the National Park of Peace and revealed the entity of nazi violence across
in Sant’Anna di Stazzema, the Regional Com- areas - like Campania - where the German occu-
mittee for the Honouring of the Fallen of Marza- pation lasted only a few months. The same rese-
botto. The information chosen from the Atlante arch reconstructed the anti-partisan retaliation,
delle stragi naziste e fasciste, edited by Paolo in which civilians became the target of a strate-
Pezzino, was particularly important; in fact, Mr gy that aimed at eliminating every form of sup-
Pezzino, who is a prominent researcher of the port to the Resistance. Italian men and women
Second World War in Italy and the President of experienced the nazi rage on several occasions:
the National Institute “Ferruccio Parri”, is also in the South, in Caiazzo, with raids and plunde-
the main scientific consultant of this exhibition. ring; the urban massacre of the Ardeatine Ca-
History, Justice, Memory: the subheading ves in Rome; the massacres in Tuscany, in the
underlines the path and the meaning of the exhi- districts of Arezzo and Civitella in Val di Chia-
bition. First of all, the violent massacres commit- na, or Padule di Fucecchio, without forgetting
ted by Germans after September 8th 1943, both Sant’Anna di Stazzema in August 1944; in Emilia
in Italy and abroad, against those Italian units Romagna in Monte Sole/Marzabotto, with 770
which refused to surrender and chose to fight. victims, including 220 minors. Many other epi-
In this section we find all the historical events sodes are described, like the crimes committed
(that involve Italians and Germans) connected in Abruzzo, Liguria, Piemonte, Lombardia, Vene-
to countless episodes of valiant resistance car- to, Friuli Venezia Giulia and Trentino-Alto Adige,
ried out by Units deprived of precise orders, but where civilians were slaughtered even after the
still convinced that resisting the German units Liberation during the nazi retreat. The exhibition
would have been the right choice. Adolf Hitler, shows how the Italian fascists participated in
the Führer, considered the Italian Armistice a these massacres, sometimes like collaborators
“treason”, when it was just an act of legitimate and other times like the absolute protagonists.
self-determination; he issued criminal orders, Despite all these innocent victims - that
shared with the High Command of Wehrmacht, should be approximately 24 thousand - justice
that resulted in the elimination of thousands of struggled to perform appropriate trials. This is,
Italian Officers, Petty Officers and soldiers, who in fact, the main object of the second part of the
only kept their oath of loyalty: the massacres of exhibition, that is dedicated to how the Italians
the Acqui Division in Corfu and Kefalonia, the and the Allies tried to punish the German war
executions in Leros and Kos, the crimes com- criminals. The British Military Courts prepared
mitted in Albania, Dalmatia and Montenegro. many cases against the main guilty parties:
The same fate faced by many Italian soldiers Feldmarshal Albert Kesselring, who ordered the
also in their motherland, among whom we find massacres guaranteeing immunity to his com-
Vice-Brigadier Salvo D’Acquisto. The German manders; Generals Mälzer and Von Mackensen,
rage hit the southern part of Italy too - for exam- who were responsible for the Ardeatine Caves
ple in Apulia and Campania - like the rest of the massacre, as well as other Generals like Max Si-
peninsula, where we find cruel massacres like tho- mon and Eduard Crasemann. Many of them were
se of the Ardeatine Caves and Fossoli. A specific sentenced to death, and then to life imprison-
section is dedicated also to the episodes concer- ment. However, at the beginning of the 1950s
ning the IMI (Internati Militari Italiani - Italian War almost all of them were pardoned, starting with
Prisoners), approximately 650 thousand soldiers, Albert Kesselring, and they could go back to
imprisoned by Wehrmacht, who refused to col- Germany (except for Generals Mälzer and Cra-
laborate with the Germans and the Italian Social semann, who died in prison). The Italian Courts
Republic; they were treated harshly during their planned to sentence the German criminals, but
imprisonment and were exploited like labour force then ended up performing only a few trials with
for the Reich. About 50 thousand of them died. 25 defendants in total, and most of them were

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