marzabotto-views per power-point

09/04/23IIS - Saluzzo-Plana - ALESSANDRIA

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Comune di 6.750 abitanti in provincia di Bologna

“Se solo fosse così semplice, se solo vi fossero persone cattive che insidiosamente commettono azioni cattive e fosse solo necessario separarle dal resto di noi e distruggerle, ma la linea che divide il bene dal male passa tagliente attraverso il cuore di ogni essere umano. In fondo è solo per il modo in cui sono andate le cose che gli altri sono stati assassini e noi non lo siamo stati”.

Aleksandr Solženicyn – Arcipelago Gulag

Questo piccolo lavoro nasce dal Progetto “I luoghi della memoria” che da alcuni anni viene affrontato dall’IIS Saluzzo-Plana di Alessandria. In questo caso, dopo i viaggi a Monte-Sole Marzabotto del 5 e del 12 maggio 2011 si è voluto approfondire il particolare contributo delle Forze Alleate (Inglesi, Americane, Sud Africane ecc.) in questo specifico scacchiere del Secondo Conflitto Mondiale.


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This work comes from the project “The places of memory”, that has been developed over the last few years by Saluzzo- Plana high school in Alessandria. After our shool trips to Monte-Sole Marzabotto on 5 and 12 May 2011 we chose to have a deeper understanding of the Allies military intervention (British, American, South African military forces) during the Second World War.

May 2011. During this last school year we have been studying the latest events in history, starting from the two World Wars.


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La storia dai documenti …

That’s why we were glad to accept our History teacher’s proposal to visit the sites


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… e dalla vita vissuta.

of the worst massacre of civilians committed by the Waffen SS in Italy during World War II.

The Marzabotto massacre was a World War II mass murder that took place in a mountainous area around the small village of Marzabotto, in the Apennines range, south of Bologna, between September 29th and October 1st 1944.


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L’eccidio di Marzabotto

Under the leadership of the SS Sturmbanhführer Walter Reder, some units of the 16th SS Armoured Infantry Division carried out one of the worst and most brutal Nazi crimes of the Second World War.


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Walter Reder

The number of victims, according to “The Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole” is 770, even if some sources report up to 1830 victims in Marzabotto and the surrounding villages. The victims included 155 children less than 10-years-old and five Catholic priests.

Elenco dei caduti


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Le vittime


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The inaccessibility of the mountainous area made Marzabotto and its surroundings an ideal location for the partisan activity,

in particular for their acts of sabotage towards the enemy.

I partigiani

Unfortunately, September 1944 was a very tricky moment for the Nazi military forces in that area, so close to the Gothic Line, the last major line of defence of Nazi forces along the summits of the Apennines against Allied Armies.


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Versione italiana al sito: http://www.gothicline.org/

La Linea Gotica

The German SS and the local Fascist authorities joined forces and planned military operations against the partisans of the area.


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Operazioni militari

When the local “Stella Rossa” partisan brigades, led by Mario Musolesi, known as “Il Lupo”, heard about the imminent raid, they retreated in the mountains, while children,women, and older people remained in the villages.


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Stella Rossa

They all didn’t know that German troops were ordered to “clean up” the entire area of Monte Sole.


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Il rastrellamentoIl rastrellamento

The townspeople of Marzabotto and the surrounding villages were in fact suspected of helping and supplying Italian partisans hidden in the mountains.

The massacre started.


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A n eyewitness reports:

When we heard the cannon shots, we decided to leave Villa d’Ignano and to go to Caprara, since my mother thought we would be safe there. We tied the cows at the cart and then left with four other families. We arrived in Caprara the night before the “mop-up” operation. I survived because I told my mother that night: “We left all the cows back home. I am going to bring them here.”

To be continued…By Salvina Astrali

Una testimonianza

Almost 800 civilians were murdered.

There has been some confusion regarding the number of victims arose over the years: some sources report up to 1,830 victims, others estimate 955 people killed. Today, the Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole reports 770 victims. This number is quite close to the official report written by Sturmbannführer Reder, stating the "execution of 728 bandits".


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Don Giovanni Fornasini, a parish priest and member of the Fascist Resistance, risked his life in the massacre to protect the defenseless population from the oppression of the Nazis. By his courageous actions, Giovanni saved the lives of many of his parishioners, and managed to escape death himself. However, while burying the bodies of those who had died in the massacre (forbidden by the Nazis), Don Fornasini was discovered by an SS officer, who groundlessly accused him of crimes committed in the Marzabotto area. Giovanni confessed to having helped the villagers avoid execution by the Nazis, and was immediately shot down.

On October 18, 1998, Cardinal Biffi opened in Bologna the process for the beatification of Don Fornasini.Today Don Giovanni Fornasini is remembered as "the angel of Marzabotto". A memorial commemorates him in the cemetery of San Martino di Caprara, with other four pastors in the area killed by the SS.

The central experience of our visit to Monte Sole was a tour of the Historical

Park.


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Our guide explained to us that those hills were once covered with houses, with close to 1000 people living there, before the Nazi “mop-up” operation.


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Our tour proceeded to three different ruin sites, where some remains of a few different sites could be seen:


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a collection of private homes and shops, a church and a cemetery.

The educator explained how the massacre took place in each place, what strategies villagers used to survive, how villagers were ultimately killed and how few survivors escaped.


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Chiarimenti…

testimonianze Clicca qui per leggere la testimonianza diretta di

alcuni sopravvissuti alla strage. Please click here to read the account of some people

who came through the massacre

He also invited us to reflect on what happened there and on the possible reasons why young people almost our same age committed heinous crimes like those at

Monte Sole.


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Tempo di riflettere …

He warned us to be always open-eyed and alert, so to prevent something like that from happening again.

I asked some schoolmates their impressions:


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Galleria immagini

Clicca qui per vedere alcune immagini di luoghi interessati dalle operazioni e dai combattimenti del 1944-1945. E’ anche visibile la variazione dei luoghi prima e dopo i combattimenti.

Please click here to see some pictures of the places interested by 1944 – 1945 military operations. You can also see how some places have changed after the war.

Opinioni, impressioni

Se possibile file audio con la voce degli studenti


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