Casaglia

Back to main massacre

Involved Unit

3^rd Company of the Reconnaissance battalion 16 ‘Reichsführer-SS’

Commander

16. SS-Panzer-Grenadier-Division "Reichsführer-SS"

Culprits

Friedrich Schmidkonz

Victims

85

Armed forces

Waffen-SS

• The church and surrounding community

  Casaglia, a district in the Marzabotto commune on the southern slopes of Monte Sole, was an important meeting place for the area’s residents, especially on account of the Santa Maria Assunta parish church. On the morning of 29 Sept., appr. 100 persons who had been warned about a pending razzia took shelter in the church. These were mainly women, children and older persons from the neighbouring farms and villages. Fearing they would be taken away during the raid, the men had hidden in the woods and mountains, where partisans were also sheltering.

• Arrival of the reconnaissance battalion

  Casaglia was located in the deployment area of the 3^rd company of the reconnaissance battalion under the command of SS-Obersturmführer Friedrich Schmidkonz. Like other atrocities in the area of Monte Sole, the massacre of Casaglia is difficult to reconstruct. Survivors’ statements and those of persons who observed the events at a distance are confused and contradictory. 

  At about 9 in the morning, around ten soldiers arrived in Casaglia and entered the church, where appr. 100 people had taken shelter. They drove these civilians out of the church, killing a paraplegic woman inside together with the young priest of San Martino, Don Ubaldo Marchioni, as well as two persons who had hidden in the belltower. The people were driven along the street toward Cerpiano, then penned into the Casaglia cemetery at the orders of an SS-leader, probably company-commander Schmidkonz. 

  The massacre in the cemetery was carried out by a squad of SS-men who opened fire on women and children with a machine gun and tossed hand grenades at them. Survivors emphasize that the massacre began without warning; the SS-men suddenly began to shoot.

  ‘Like a flock of sheep, we were all forced to enter the cemetery’, recounted Cornelia Paselli. ‘They shoved and stepped on us. One of them gave an old woman his arm to help her in, before again beginning to brutally shove the others. They seemed out of their minds’.

  ‘I saw two Germans step in’, said Lucia Sabbioni. ‘One of them placed an MG before us on a tripod, loaded it with a belt. I recall that this MG had a big muzzle. The other German had a big automatic weapon.’

  The entire action, from clearing out the church to the massacre, probably lasted at least an hour. Eighty-five people were murdered, including thirty-eight children. Seven wounded girls and a wounded boy survived by hiding under the corpses.