Monte Sole

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Involved Unit

The entire SS Reconnaissance Battalion 16 ‘Reichsführer-SS’ 

A task force under an SS-leader of the Ic-battalion of division headquarters 

A battery of SS Flak Battalion 16 

Parts of SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 35 

Parts of SS Artillery Regiment 16 

Different ‘alarm’ (air-raid warning) units (unknown whether SS or Wehrmacht) 

Parts of Flak Regiment 105 (Luftwaffe), including Light Flak Battalion 945 (Luftwaffe) 

IV Battalion [actually III Battalion] (East)/Grenadier Regiment 1059 (former East Battalion 560, later Russian Battalion 560) of the army.

Commander

I. Fallschirmkorps, 16. SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Division "Reichsführer-SS"

Culprits

Max Simon, Helmut Looß, Walter Reder, their company leader Willfried Segebrecht, Werner Horst Szillat, Friedrich Schmidtkonz, Max Adam Saalfrank and their men, including the men accused in the La Spezia trial.

Victims

770 

Investigations and processes

1947: Proceeding of British military tribunal in Padua against Max Simon on account of massacres by his division in the Emilia and Tuscany regions. The death sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. In 1948 the penalty was lowered to 21 years; Simon was released in 1954.

1951: Proceeding of Bologna military tribunal  against Walter Reder and sentencing to life imprisonment; 1954 confirmation of sentence. 1980: approval by Bari military tribunal of release on parole; 1985: release and return to Austria.  

2002-2007: Proceedings of the military prosecutors before the La Spezia military court against 17 former SS-leaders, non-commissioned officers, and soldiers of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’. On 13 Jan. 2007, 10 accused were sentenced to life imprisonment, seven acquitted. On 7 May 2008 the military appeals court in Rome annulled two of the judgments, one through acquittal, the other because of the death of the sentenced man. Another man who had previously been acquitted was now sentenced.

2003-2009: Proceedings of Munich prosecutor’s office against Franz Stockinger and other former members of SS Reconnaissance Battalion 16. Proceedings terminated in 2009.

Additional crime scenes

Ca’ Beguzzi
Cadotto
Caprara
Casaglia
Cerpiano
Creda
San Giovanni di Sotto
San Martino di Caprara
Pioppe di Salvaro

Armed forces

Waffen-SS

The massacre

• Planning of the operation in late September

  At this time the area of Monte Sole stood under the direct control of General Alfred Schlemm’s I Parachute Corps, to which the ‘Reichsführer-SS’ division reported.  The response to partisan attacks now changed from prompt reprisal to preparation by the parachute corps of a large-scale operation, to be undertaken by that SS division. The new plan of action anticipated extensive and radical countermeasures. The 14^th Army responsible for this front sector here refers to a Vernichtungsunternehmen, an ‘annihilation operation’. In the Wehrmacht documents from occupied Italy, use of the term Vernichtung in the context of anti-partisan actions appears otherwise absent. But in retrospect, the term accurately describes the approach taken by the SS.

  On 29 and 30 Sept. 1944, a large-scale operation got underway that would cost the lives of appr. 770 civilians, most of whom were children, women, and older people with no connection to the partisans. Hundreds of men would also be taken prisoner and brought to Bologna for forced labour.

• Participating troops in the massacre

  The ‘cleansing operation’ was largely carried out by the ‘Reichsführer-SS’ division, to a lesser extent by Wehrmacht units. There were two main assault detachments: Under the command of Walter Reder, the 1^st, 2^nd, 3^rd and 5^th companies of SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 16 were deployed on the slope of the Setta River. In the Reno valley, a second group operated under the command of SS Hauptsturmführer Franz Schmidt from the SS-division’s Ic-battalion. This included Divisions-Begleit-Kompanie SS 16, personnel from the supply troops of both motorized infantry regiments, and members of the Ic-battalion.

  While Walter Reder’s men had San Martino, Monte Caprara and Monte Sole as their goal, Schmidt’s soldiers moved from Pioppe di Salvaro toward San Martino. As was the case with earlier mopping-up actions by the SS in Tuscany, SS Sturmbannführer Helmut Looß had command of the entire operation. He was head of tactical group Ic of the division’s general staff and responsible for both security in the rear area and combatting partisans.

  The other troop contingents were taken from the SS-division and regular Wehrmacht units. Their task was to surround the area and seal it off. Troops of SS Flak Battalion 16 advanced from the Grizzana area to Veggio and Albergana. Portions of the Luftwaffe’s Flak Regiment 105, including men from Light Flak Battalion 945, came from Marzabotto. In the Reno valley, soldiers from a battalion of Russian auxiliary troops guarded the encircled area’s northern border. In the area’s largest building, a hemp-processing factory in Pioppe di Salvaro, the Feldgendarmerie set up both a headquarters and an assembly point for forced labourers. In total, between 1,500 and 2,000 men participated in the action. 

• Italian collaborators as German agents

  In the days before the razzia, Italian collaborators were sent into the partisan region as informers. Some of them had mingled with the resistance members, collecting information about their units’ positions and weapons. The most well-known of these spies was Giuliano De Balzo, named ‘Cacao’, who denounced partisan-assisting civilians. Another such collaborator was Erman Montanari, from Modena. In the summer of 1944, he was recruited by German military security and, after a short briefing period, was given the task of determining the whereabouts of ‘Stella Rossa’.

  Such informants had counterparts in the local agencies. Many civilians with fascist sympathies felt abandoned by the Mussolini government and threatened by the partisans; that summer, despite all the dangers, denunciation was a chance to receive protection for themselves and their families. Lorenzo Mingardi, secretary of the Republican Fascist Party of Marzabotto, and Giovanni Quadri, supporter of the Italian Social Republic, collaborated with the German troops. Immediately after the war ended, they were arrested and convicted. 

• The ‘annihilation operation’

  29 and 30 Sept. 1944 were the most important days of the German ‘cleansing operation’. The German troops attacked more than 30 villages on these two days alone. On 29 Sept., appr. 550 civilians  were murdered, the next day more than 100. The worst massacres – for details see Atlante delle Stragi Naziste e Fasciste – took place on 29 Sept. in Creda (69 victims), Cadotto (49), Casaglia (85), San Giovanni di Sotto (52) and Caprara (63). Between 29 and 30 Sept., 46 persons were murdered in Cerpiano, on 30 Sept. 37 persons in San Martino di Caprara. Reports indicate that 18 persons were already murdered in the San Martino area on 29 Sept. 

  Walter Reder’s soldiers were probably responsible for between 320 and 340 of the murders on that day. An additional 130 to 150 murders can be ascribed to troops under the leadership of Franz Schmidt. The SS Flak Battalion in Veggio and Albergana killed circa 15 persons, the Luftwaffe in Sperticano circa 10. Around 90 of the victims on 30 Sept. can be traced to incursions by Walter Reder’s men. 

  The ‘cleansing operation’ ended on 30 Sept. Walter Reder’s reconnaissance battalion was shifted to the front. But the massacres continued over the following days, with many more victims. On 1 Oct., 45 men were murdered by an SS battalion, probably the Feldgendarmerie of the ‘Reichsführer-SS’ division. In Ca’Beguzzi, on 4 or 5 Oct., 18 persons were shot to death by a still-unidentified SS unit. For most of the massacres, SS troops were responsible, especially from the reconnaissance battalion. The murder of civilians in Sperticano on 29 Sept. can be ascribed to Wehrmacht units with certainty; other incidents where they were responsible are likely but less clear-cut. 

  In total, the massacres were perpetrated in 115 locations. Not only larger areas were affected, but also many scattered farmsteads and even cabins in the woods. 

• Following the massacre: 'No-man’s-land'

  In the weeks following the massacre, the front line drew close to Monte Sole. Until the end of the war, the area of the massacre became a ‘no-man’s-land’. German and Allied patrols moved through the area; the local populace had abandoned their houses. Reder’s soldiers returned after around a week, Reder staying for two days in Cerpiano and, together with some of his fellow SS officers, perpetrating additional violence against the few survivors. Then the area was held for some months by SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 35 and, on the side of the Reno River starting mid-Oct., by units of the Wehrmacht’s 94^th Infantry Division. 

  Because not all victims had been buried in the days following the massacre, traces of the mass killing were visible everywhere. Some German and Allied soldiers reported on this in their diaries. Military historian Neil Orpen thus writes as follows: ‘Reconnoitring forward to Cadotto, they found the village badly wrecked. About 17 civilian dead, including women and children who were obviously victims of atrocities, were found among the ruins.’ 

  In the 1960s, a former member of Grenadierregiment 274, interrogated by German judicial authorities in the context of investigation of the San Polo massacre, issued the following statement: “I would like to finally emphasize that I very firmly repudiate actions such as those said to have occurred in the Arezzo area and distance myself from such deeds. That not only now but also at that time; for I became acquainted with such a reprisal action or the results of such an action directly after it took place. That was in the Bologna area, where we relieved an SS division in October 1944. This case is known through the man responsible, Major Reder, who is still in the Italian Gaeta fortress.’

  After the German capitulation, numerous transports with German POWs moved through the Reno Valley on the way to the prison camps near Pisa and Florence. In their diaries, some of the prisoners reported that civilians had approached them and thrown stones at them. None of them connected this aggression with the massacres of autumn 1944.

Investigations and trials

• The trial of Walter Reder in 1951

  In 1945, Reder was taken to an Austrian military hospital, apprehended there shortly after, and interned in the Wolfsberg camp - a former Stalag (Stammlager) now used as a British POW camp. In 1948, the British authorities delivered him to Italy. A Military court in Bologna found him jointly responsible for the Vinca, Valla, Bardine and Monte Sole massacres – the latter especially in Casaglia – and sentenced him to life imprisonment in autumn 1951.  

  But the judicial authorities never prosecuted other surviving company leaders who bore just as great a responsibility for the massacres. 

  For the sake of receiving a pardon, Reder wrote to relatives of the victims in Marzabotto asking for forgiveness in 1967; they declined to grant it. In 1980, through judgement of a military court in Bari, he was granted parole from five years’ internment in the Gaeta prison with POW status. In 1984, Reder again wrote a letter to the Marzabotto commune, admitting his guilt and once more asking for forgiveness; the request was turned down for a second time. Then, in 1985, mainly because of pressure from the Austrian government, Italian Prime Minister Bettino Craxi issued a decree ordering Reder’s release and return to Austria.

• The 2000s: Press interest and new investigations by German and Italian prosecutors

  In 1994, the documents stored in the ‘cabinet of shame’ were found in the Palazzo Cesi, the seat of the military prosecuting authority in Rome. The discovery sparked a new wave of trials. But the initial investigations only proceeded haltingly. 

  On 11 April 2002, the German political TV-journal Kontraste broadcast interviews conducted by investigative journalists Udo Gümpel and René Althammer with some former SS-members whom Italian military prosecutors had tried but failed to identify. On 17 April 2002, in the course of a visit to Italy by German Federal President Johannes Rau, a memorial event was held at the Marzabotto memorial and in Monte Sole memorial park. This was the first visit by a high West German official to the massacre’s site. Before relatives of the victims, Johannes Rau expressed his ‘grief and shame’. 

  Rau’s visit had international resonance. In addition, the Kontraste interviews had drawn public attention to the fact that former SS-men not yet brought to justice for the massacres were living ordinary lives in Germany.  This prompted a response by Italian and German prosecutors.

  At the same time, Marco De Paolis, having taken over the office of military prosecutor in the La Spezia military court, put together an efficient team of bilingual police officials, carabinieri, and customs officers headed by Roberto D’Elia, an Italian army colonel. With the help of advice of historians and the cooperation of German prosecutors’ offices, this laid the basis for new investigations. 

  Following the visit of Johannes Rau, the Central Office of the Land Judicial Authorities for Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg initiated the first investigations; these were passed on to the Munich public prosecutor’s office in Feb. 2003. During the legal proceedings, many former SS members were questioned; but the gathered evidence was sparse and thought insufficient for filing charges. After six years, the proceedings were terminated on 27 April 2009.

• The La Spezia trial

  Led by military prosecutor De Paolis and the police group of Colonel D’Elia, the La Spezia prosecutor’s investigation of the Monte Sole massacres advanced more quickly. But they also proved difficult. Many former SS men had to be questioned in Germany and Austria. In 2005, a statute of limitations threatened to block continued investigation of Nazi crimes. The first hearing, scheduled for 5 July 2005, had to be postponed in order to merge the different ongoing proceedings. 

  Finally, on 8 Feb. 2006, the trial in La Spezia, opened against 17 accused men in absentia: Paul Albers, Josef Baumann, Hermann Becker, Hubert Bichler, Günther Finster, Ernst Gude, Wilhelm Kusterer, Albert Piepenschneider, Max Roithmeier, Adolf Schneider, Max Schneider, Kurt Spieler, Franz Stockinger, Otto Erhart Tiegel, Heinz Fritz Träger, Georg Wache und Helmut Wulf. 

  Because of the large number of onlookers, the proceedings were held in a movie-theatre. Many victims’ relatives were present – they joined to form a committee – as well as journalists, plaintiffs, and defence lawyers. The hearings were continued into the summer, then postponed due to a lawyers’ strike. 

  After 23 days of trial, on 10 Jan. 2007 De Paolis requested 15 life sentences. The plaintiffs’ representatives requested 100 million euros in restitution. On 13 Jan., the court, led by presiding judge Vincenzo Santoro, sentenced ten of the 17 absent men to life in prison; seven others were acquitted. Albers, Baumann, Bichler, Roithmeier, Adolf Schneider and Max Schneider. Spieler, Träger, Wache und Wulf received life sentences, Stockinger, Finster, Piepenschneider, Gude, Becker, Tiegel and Kusterer were acquitted.

  On 7 May 2008 the appeals court in Rome acquitted Spieler on grounds of insufficient evidence. The judgement against Wache was nullified because of his death. Kusterer, acquitted in the La Spezia trial, was found guilty by the appeals court. Not a single sentenced man would be extradited or even arrested. At present, none of the victims’ relatives have received any restitution.

• Monte Sole after the massacre

  Measured by the number of victims and size of the affected area, the massacre of Monte Sole was the worst war crime of German troops during Italy’s occupation and the largest such crime perpetrated against civilians in Western Europe.

  Following the massacre, between Oct. 1944 and April 1945 the entire plateau became a war zone. Now added to the German murders was the damage of subsequent military operations, the bombing of nearby railroad lines, and mines.  

  It would only be possible after the war to give the victims dignified burial and determine how many were killed. 

• Commemoration of the massacre

  During the first annual event commemorating the massacre, the number of victims was estimated as 1,830 - a figure resulting from the difference between the number of residents registered on the prewar census and the number of ration cards distributed after the liberation. The figure of 1,830 was also referred to in the award of the Italian Gold Medal of Military Valour to the town of Marzabotto in Sept. 1949.

  The term Strage di Marzabotto (massacre of Marzabotto) became widespread because of the affiliation of most locations involved with the Marzabotto commune. But the term is incorrect geographically, so that presently Strage di Monte Sole (massacre of Monte Sole‚) is preferred.

  In public commemorative culture, Marzabotto is consistently connected with the massacre - a connection that became especially strong starting in 1961, when a Sacrario ai Caduti (sanctuary of the victims) was set up in the town’s main square. After the war the victims’ corpses, initially buried in mass graves, were exhumed and moved individually to small cemeteries; finally, they were again exhumed and reinterred together in the Sacrario.

  At the request of the commune, a Comitato per le onoranze ai caduti di Marzabotto was founded in 1954. In 1982 this became a regional institution. Until 2011, its president was Dante Cruicchi who was the mayor of Marzabotto during the 1980s. 

  In the 1970s, Bologna’s Catholic church began developing its own commemorative approach to the mass killings. Starting in the 1980s, clergy then took up the theme, with two authors in particular contributing new research: Monsignore Luciano Gherardi conducted a study of communities wiped out by the massacres (Le querce di Monte Sole, 1986); work of Don Giuseppe Dossetti had even greater relevance. During the war Dossetti had been an anti-fascist and member of the regional resistance. In the postwar period, as a Christian Democratic politician in the Assemblea Costituente, he contributed to developing the new Italian constitution. Finally, he became a priest and founded the Piccola famiglia dell'Annunziata, a monastic community located in Casaglia since 1985.

  In 1989 the Emilia-Romagna region established the Parco Storico of Monte Sole, its goal being – beyond the area’s environmental protection – ‘dissemination of a culture of peace’. The Fondazione Scuola di Pace di Monte Sole was established in 2002; its founding members included local agencies and associations, the University of Bologna, that city’s Istituti storici della Resistenza, and Germany’s State of Hesse.  

  In the wake of the La Spezia trial. an association bringing together survivors and their families, the Associazione vittime eccidi nazifascisti nei Comuni di Grizzana Marzabotto Monzuno 1944, would finally be founded in 2006, 

  Historical research on the massacres has advanced since the 1980s, with detailed reconstruction of the massacres and the surrounding circumstances. The study by Paolo Pezzino and Luca Baldissara, Il massacro. Guerra ai civili a Monte Sole, 2009, is considered the most comprehensive reconstruction of the events.

• Number of victims

  First estimates after the war were of 770 to 800 persons killed, this based on Wehrmacht reports, Allied assessments, and initial press reports. Then the figure of 1,830 was put forward  on the occasion of the above mentioned first annual memorial event  (30 Sept. 1946). But this number refers not to the massacre specifically but rather to general wartime population loss in the region. In Italy, much emphasis was placed on the figure, which stood symbolically for the extreme brutality of wartime military actions aimed at a civilian population.  

  Over the following decades, thanks to research of the Comitato regionale per le onoranze ai caduti di Marzabotto, the original figure of 770 victims could be confirmed. This remains the worst massacre of civilians perpetrated by German troops on the western front.

• Official visits

  For many years, first West German heads of state and high governmental officials, then those representing a united Germany, stayed away from Marzabotto and Monte Sole. The reasons for this were complex. First and foremost, a political component was attached to memory of the massacre: as part of the partisan movement’s history, it was connected to Italy’s Communist Party. The conviction of Walter Reder, who had regained Austrian citizenship in 1956, perhaps illuminates this German caution vis-à-vis Marzabotto. 

  This stance began to change in 1998, with the new German governmental coalition of the Social Democrats and Green Party, on the one hand, the journalistic ‘discovery’ of war criminals living in Germany, on the other hand. As mentioned, in April 2002 German president Johannes Rau visited the massacre sites and, accompanied by Italian president Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, asked for forgiveness in the name of the German people. The Kontraste report about Albert Meier and other SS-men who participated in the Monte Sole murders living undisturbed in Germany had appeared a week earlier. 

  European Commission president Romano Prodi attended the memorial event of Oct. 2002 in Marzabotto; in the following year’s event, German foreign minister Joschka Fischer attended.