The Padule di Fucecchio massacre ( it, Eccidio del Padule di Fucecchio) was the murder of at least 174 Italian civilians, carried out by the

26th Panzer Division 23rd Infantry Division The German 23rd Infantry Division (''23. Infanterie-Division''), later the 26th Panzer Division, was a military unit operational during World War II. It was organized along standard lines for a German infantry division. ...

at , a large

wetland A wetland is a distinct ecosystem that is flooded or saturated by water, either permanently (for years or decades) or seasonally (for weeks or months). Flooding results in oxygen-free (anoxic) processes prevailing, especially in the soils. The ...

north of

Fucecchio Fucecchio () is a town and ''comune'' of the Metropolitan City of Florence in the Italian region of Tuscany. The main economical resources of the city are the leather industries, shoes industry and other manufacturing activities, although in the ...

Tuscany Tuscany ( ; it, Toscana ) is a Regions of Italy, region in central Italy with an area of about and a population of about 3.8 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence (''Firenze''). Tuscany is known for its landscapes, history, art ...

, on 23 August 1944. After the war, the commander of the 26th Panzer Division was sentenced for war crimes, but the men who carried out the massacre were not convicted until 2011 and none served any jail time. The massacre has been described as "one of the worst Nazi atrocities in Italy".

Massacre

The massacre was carried out as a reprisal for the wounding of two German soldiers by

Italian partisans The Italian resistance movement (the ''Resistenza italiana'' and ''la Resistenza'') is an umbrella term for the Italian resistance groups who fought the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and the fascist collaborationists of the Italian Social ...

. An Italian military court was later told that the Germans had rounded up 94 men, 63 women and 27 children and murdered them with machine gun fire. According to the prosecutor, the murders were committed "in cold blood, looking the innocent in the eyes". An Italian historian described the massacre as "not a reprisal but an operation of total desertification".

Prosecution

Initial investigation

British military police Sergeant Charles Edmondson investigated the massacre in 1945. He took statements from survivors. This evidence was used decades later, after Edmondson's death in 1985, in the prosecution of some of the perpetrators. Edmondson established that the massacre was carried out by soldiers of the

. The division was commanded by

Eduard Crasemann Eduard Crasemann (5 March 1891 – 29 April 1950) was a German ''General der Artillerie'' in the Wehrmacht and convicted war criminal who commanded several Panzer divisions during World War II. Crasemann fought as an artillery officer during W ...

at the time, who was sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment for war crimes by a British military court. He died in a West German prison in 1950.

Trial

In 2011, a military court in Italy tried four of the suspected perpetrators and found three of them guilty while the fourth one died during the trial. Ernst Pistor (Captain), Fritz Jauss (Warrant officer), and Johan Robert Riss (Sergeant) were found guilty while Gerhard Deissmann died before the sentencing, aged 100. The three were unlikely to serve time in jail because Germany was not obliged to extradite them. None of the three showed any remorse for their action. Some of the perpetrators of the massacre were also accused of participating in the murder of the family of Robert Einstein.

Compensation

Marco De Paolis, the military prosecutor in the case, asked Germany to pay €14 million in compensation to 32 relatives of the victims but Germany denied liability, citing immunity agreements with Italy in 1947 and 1961.

Commemoration

In 2015, the Italian Foreign Minister,

Paolo Gentiloni Paolo Gentiloni Silveri (; born 22 November 1954) is an Italian politician who has served as European Commissioner for Economy in the von der Leyen Commission since 1 December 2019. He previously served as prime minister of Italy from December ...

, together with his German counterpart

Frank-Walter Steinmeier Frank-Walter Steinmeier (; born 5 January 1956) is a German politician serving as President of Germany since 19 March 2017. He was previously Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2005 to 2009 and again from 2013 to 2017, as well as Vice Chan ...

, who would later serve as

President of Germany The president of Germany, officially the Federal President of the Federal Republic of Germany (german: link=no, Bundespräsident der Bundesrepublik Deutschland),The official title within Germany is ', with ' being added in international corres ...

, opened a Documentation Centre on the Padule di Fucecchio Massacre. The official press release by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation puts the number of victims in the massacre at 175.

Notes

References

{{Nazi war crimes in Italy History of Tuscany Murder in Italy 1944 crimes in Italy Massacres in 1944 Massacres in the Italian Social Republic Mass murder in 1944 World War II crimes August 1944 events War crimes of the Wehrmacht