Caprara
![Along a narrow country road lie the ruins of some grey stone houses. The foundation walls have been worn down to about half a metre.](/fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_1_e89e1ee883.jpg 320w, /fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_1_97cf8adff9.jpg 480w, /fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_1_827241e8d9.jpg 640w, /fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_1_1a9a87ebdb.jpg 960w, /fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_1_ac7e0a0b22.jpg 1280w, /fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_1_b9d59ac217.jpg 1920w, /fileadmin/_processed_/7/b/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_1_9f185a5acd.jpg 2560w)
29 September 1944 , Caprara, in the Marzabotto commune (Bologna, Emilia Romagna)
Until the Marzabotto commune was established, Caprara was the region’s centre. In 1944, it was the site of a grocery store, a tavern, and farmhouses.
We can no longer reconstruct many details of the massacre. It was very likely carried out by the same unit that had murdered the residents of Casaglia. Women, young people, and children were penned up in a large room and killed with hand grenades and by shooting at point-blank range. Other people were killed in the surrounding woods.
- Involved Unit
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3rd Company
SS Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 16 ‘Reichsführer-SS’ - Culprits
- Victims
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63
- Armed forces
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Waffen-SS
![The aerial view of the ruins shows the ground plans of the individual houses.](/fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_a4d68d7999.jpg 320w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_939aa6ecb9.jpg 400w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_cb012762dc.jpg 480w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_f2c07b736b.jpg 560w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_4e69c97397.jpg 640w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_26cc861753.jpg 800w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_487c470014.jpg 960w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_e55ae3516a.jpg 1120w, /fileadmin/_processed_/f/5/csm_Caprara_di_sopra_Monte_Sole3_83d62d1cf1.jpg 1280w)
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An old administrative centre
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Uncertainty about the 29 Sept. events
Only women and children remained in Caprara’s houses. They were driven into the kitchen of the tavern and locked up there. The soldiers began to throw hand grenades through the window and then to fire shots at the locked-in people at close range. Finally, the building was set on fire.
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A massacre of women and children
Literature
Luca Baldissara, Paolo, Il massacro. Guerra ai civili a Monte Sole, Bologna, Il Mulino, 2009, pp. 130-136, 141-149, 581.
Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und
Dario Zanini, Marzabotto e dintorni, 1944, Bologna, Ponte nuovo, 1996, pp. 529-531.
Authorship and translation
Author: Carlo Gentile
Translated from German by: Joel Golb
© Project ‘The Massacres in Occupied Italy (1943-1945): Integrating the Perpetrators’ Memories’
2023