(Italian Partisan song “Bella Ciao”)
Today in 1945 Italy was freed from Fascism.
Casualties from the uprising amounted to:
- Approximately 44,700 Italian partisans killed
- Approximately 21,200 Italian partisans wounded or disabled
- Approximately 15,000 Italian civilians killed in retaliations
- Approximately 40,000 former Italian soldiers died in concentration camps
During the war, German and Italian Fascist soldiers committed a number of other war crimes including summary executions, rape of female prisoners, ransacking, and retaliations against civilians; most of these were common practices.
Some of the most notorious events were the Ardeatine massacre, the Marzabotto massacre, and the Sant’Anna di Stazzema massacre. Captured partisans or civilians were oftentortured. The Decima Flottiglia MAS, an Italian unit under German command, is now remembered as one of the most ruthless military corps of the war.
The Germans profited greatly from the weakness of the Fascist puppet state in Northern Italy. The Germans determined that they would annex Italian territories into the Third Reich. Two new German regions were to be established. One was the Alpenvorland, to comprise the region of Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol and the Province of Belluno. The other was Adriatisches Küstenland, to comprise Istria, Quarnero, and most of today’s region of Friuli-Venezia Giulia. In the valley of Carnia, the Germans used anti-communist forces from the Soviet Union under the command of ataman Timofey Ivanovich Domanov; they were promised a Cossack republic to be established in Northeastern Italy, to be called Kosakenland.
May this day always be remembered and never forgotten.
