Riccardo Maraffa ( Biljana, 20 December 1890 –

Dachau , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

, 11 December 1943) was an Italian soldier and civil servant, founder of the Italian Africa Police, which he commanded from 1936 to 1943.

Biography

Maraffa was born in Biljana, present-day Slovenia (then part of the

Austro-Hungarian Empire Austria-Hungary, often referred to as the Austro-Hungarian Empire,, the Dual Monarchy, or Austria, was a constitutional monarchy and great power in Central Europe between 1867 and 1918. It was formed with the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of ...

), on December 20, 1890, the son of career soldier and oil prospection entrepreneur Cataldo Rocco, from

Ceglie Messapica Ceglie Messapica (; scn, label= Brindisino, Cégghie) is a town, and ''comune'', located in the province of Brindisi and region of Apulia, in southern Italy, in the traditional area called Salento. Geography The area of Ceglie Messapica is loca ...

, and Carlotta Giuseppina Gallin, from Udine. He began his military career in the

Royal Italian Army The Royal Italian Army ( it, Regio Esercito, , Royal Army) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfre ...

with the rank of artillery

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

, on October 16, 1911. He fought in the First World War and after the war, with the rank of

Major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

, he commanded the 10th Siege Artillery Regiment; in 1935, during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, he was appointed head of the Military Office of the Ministry of Colonies, and later assigned to sections 1st and 3rd of the High Colonial Council. In 1936, after promotion to Colonel, he was assigned to the Royal Academy of Turin, but in January 1937 he left the Army and was given command of the newly established Italian Africa Police (PAI), with the rank of Major General. The PAI was conceived by Maraffa as an organization with a military organization but with a civilian structure, organized on the model of the British colonial police. The police force was made up of Italian and African personnel, equipped with uniforms, vehicles and weapons of higher quality than those of other Italian law enforcement agencies of the time. He was probably one of the first to study the use of the helicopter for police tasks. In 1943, after the end of the Tunisian campaign and the loss of all Italian colonies in Africa, the personnel of the Italian Africa Police in Italy, made up exclusively of Italian personnel, passed under the control of the Italian police chief

Carmine Senise Carmine Senise (Naples, 28 November 1883 – Rome, 24 January 1958) was the chief of the Italian police from November 1940 to September 1943, except for a brief period from April to July 1943. Biography He was born in 1883 in Naples from a ...

and was placed at the disposal of the Army Corps of Rome, participating in the fighting in defense of the capital against the German troops following the

Armistice of Cassibile The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II. It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Brig ...

. After the German takeover, on 13 September 1943 General Maraffa assumed command of all the police forces of the Open City of Rome, with full powers for the maintenance of public order; he welcomed hundreds of officers and soldiers of the dissolved Royal Italian Army units into his police force, thus preventing their deportation to Germany as Italian Military Internees. After the establishment of the

Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...

, however, he refused to swear loyalty to the new

Fascist Fascism is a far-right, Authoritarianism, authoritarian, ultranationalism, ultra-nationalist political Political ideology, ideology and Political movement, movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and pol ...

puppet state and was therefore arrested by the Gestapo and sent to the

Dachau concentration camp , , commandant = List of commandants , known for = , location = Upper Bavaria, Southern Germany , built by = Germany , operated by = ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) , original use = Political prison , construction ...

, where he died less than two months later, on 11 December 1943, after suffering a heart attack.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Maraffa, Riccardo 1890 births 1943 deaths Italian police officers Italian military personnel killed in World War II Italian people who died in Dachau concentration camp Italian military personnel of World War I Italian military personnel of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War