San Martino di Caprara

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Involved Unit

1^st and 5^th companies SS-Panzer Reconnaissance Battalion 16 ‘Reichsführer-SS’

Commander

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

Culprits

Hermann Bühler, Helmut Wulf

Victims

55

Armed forces

Waffen-SS

• The church-centre San Martino di Caprara

  San Martino di Caprara was located appr. 1000 meters away from the village of Caprara, between the valleys of the Reno and Setta rivers. It was the site of an old parish church and consisted of the parish house and some farmhouses surrounding the churchyard. The remains of these structures are still partly visible, and the nearby cemetery is still maintained. At the time, farmsteads and settlements scattered over the mountain slopes also belonged to the parish.

• The massacre of 29 and 30 Sept. 1944

  San Martino was thought to be the headquarters of the ‘Stella Rossa’ partisan brigade. On 29 Sept. it was the main target of German troops for this reason. According to the official list of victims, eighteen people were shot to death there. Precisely which forces arrived in San Martino on 29 Sept. cannot be ascertained.

  What we know with certainty is that the 1^st and 3^rd companies of Walter Reder’s reconnaissance battalion arrived there on 30 Sept. and perpetrated a second bloodbath. A group of thirty-seven persons, nearly all women, children and young people including the Lorenzini, Luccarini and Paselli families, were pulled from their houses, placed against a wall, and murdered with machine guns. Their corpses and the buildings were set on fire.

• Legoll’s statement

  In Nov. 1944, following his Desertion the Alsatian SS-soldier Julien Legoll was interrogated in a POW camp by the French secret service. He gave a detailed statement concerning the massacre of San Martino, describing the crimes of his unit, the 5^th company’s infantry-gun platoon:

  ‘Between 3:30 and 4 a.m. on 30 Sept. 1944, the 1^st comp. began to march from Montorio together with the 5^th comp.’s infantry-gun platoon. They again crossed the street and river, but further right of the street taken the previous day. After a march of around two hours, they met up with the 2^nd comp., positioned near a small group of farmhouses. The 2^nd comp. seemed to have met fierce resistance from the partisans that morning and the 1^st comp. had now been ordered there to reinforce them. The 1^st comp. stayed around two hours with the 2^nd comp. Around 8 o’clock the infantry-gun platoon was detached and sent out to capture a place called San Martello [=San Martino].

  ‘We reached this place around 9 o’clock. It was made up of a church and three farmhouses. The Unterscharführer deployed the twenty-man strong column around the village and light weapon fire was concentrated on the village for around ten minutes. Then the order was issued to cease fire. Our soldiers entered the buildings and found them abandoned aside from one old woman, and there were no weapons.

  ‘After the cease-fire command the column entered the village at a normal marching pace without cover, since our fire had not been answered.

  When we approached one of the houses, we heard the screams of a terrified woman. The corporal who led the 3^rd group, Corporal Knapper, approached a window of this house and – without looking in – threw in a hand grenade. Then four of us entered the building and found an old woman (50 or 60), who was dead. She had definitely been killed by the hand grenade. I was part of the group that found her.

  Then the whole village was set on fire, but the church wouldn’t burn. When we set the houses on fire we piled the furniture together, and hay and straw was put under the piles and kindled. With the church, an effort was made to burn the wooden benches but this failed.

  ‘Before the attempt to set the church on fire, the column’s commander, Wolf, gave the order to destroy the altar. Since I’m Catholic I walked out of the church. But I returned in enough time to see that the altar had been split apart and an effort had been made to destroy the church. Then the column was allowed a short rest. I’d say that although the column’s commander was Unterscharführer Wolf, this expedition was under the command of Oberscharführer BoehIer from the 1^st comp.

  ‘Our short rest was interrupted by the arrival of a group of thirty or forty women and children, escorted by three SS-soldiers who I believe belonged to the 2^nd or 3^rd comp. They led the group to where we were sitting and asked Boehler what they were to do with them. He said: “They need to be shot”. Then the three SS-people walked away. The women and children were then placed against the wall of the farmhouse where the old woman had been killed. They tried to escape but were captured again.

  Boehler ordered Sturmmann Pieltner to kill them with his MG. I heard Pieltner mutter an objection, for which reason Boehler drew his revolver, and I saw that the threat caused  Pieltner to mow down the women and children firing his MG. This took place between 11 and 12 o’clock.

  The corpses were left lying where they had fallen. We then marched off to reach the assembly point where we met the 1^st company, with whom we returned to our quarters in Montorio.’