'Wallenstein III'

As the Allied front advanced in the summer of 1944, several so-called ‘partisan republics’ emerged in the Apennines – areas temporarily controlled by the Resistenza, from which German occupation troops and Fascist administrative and police forces had been driven out. One of the best known was the ‘Partisan Republic of Montefiorino’ south of Modena. It emerged in mid-June 1944, covered seven municipalities and an area of around 600 square kilometres, and became an important symbol of armed resistance.

For the German command, this loss of control in an area close to the front posed a strategic challenge. The zone controlled by the Resistenza threatened important supply routes. In the third phase of Operation ‘Wallenstein’, from 30 July to 7 August 1944, the partisan formations in the Montefiorino area were to be broken up and military control restored. Units of the Luftwaffe, the German Order Police and Fascist militias took part. Within a few days, these forces brought the area back under their control.

No massacres of the civilian population are documented for this final phase of the operation. Violence, however, did not end. Arrests, sweep operations and the execution of captured partisans continued, especially in the Fanano area. Arson and the destruction of rural infrastructure also remained central elements of the operation. What is striking, therefore, is not the absence of violence, but its altered form: it continued to be directed against people, property and livelihoods, but now appeared in a more selective and operationally focused manner.

The photographs shown here come from the Bundesarchiv, collection Bild 101 I. They were taken by the Luftwaffe photographic correspondent Seyfarth during this final phase of the operation. The series follows a Luftwaffe unit in the Montefiorino area; it may show the Luftwaffe Jäger Battalion z. b. V. 7, which took part in all phases of Operation ‘Wallenstein’.

The image sequence documents the approach to the operational area, formation and advance in the Apennines, as well as security and search measures. It shows farmhouses being searched, food and livestock being confiscated, and isolated farmsteads deliberately set on fire. The photographs combine military tension, routinised action and deliberate destruction: soldiers are shown advancing, carrying out security measures and pausing in moments of apparent rest; at the same time, the images show burning buildings, confiscated supplies and the destruction of rural infrastructure. In this way, the series provides insight not only into the conduct of a ‘sweep operation’, but also into the normalisation of violence within anti-partisan warfare.