After bird-watching at the Padule wetlands we came across this memorial dedicated to the 174 civilians massacred by Nazi soldiers in 1944 in the Fucecchio area.
It is sited at Castelmartini, a ‘frazione’ of Larciano and the start of the road leading to the Padule di Fucecchio bird sanctuary. Together with Sant’Anna di Stazzema what happened in Fucecchio area remains one of the most appalling of war crimes committed against Italian citizens during World War Two.
Looking at the names and ages of the victims on the adjoining board is sobering. Why on earth decide to also shoot babies? For so much of my life I thought this kind of mindless reprisal was the darkest of histories in Europe, only discoverable when viewing documentaries on the Second World War or searching library archives and yet we s sadly know this is not true as, in the comfort of our homes, we view the latest atrocities in our 21st century continent of Europe.
A commission of inquiry regarding the massacre was one of the few cases in Italy in which the investigations were carried out by the British. Unlike the Americans the British created a special investigation branch to examine the alleged war crimes committed by the Wehrmacht against the Italian civilian population. After having ascertained the facts, the commission instituted a trial in Venice, with the aim of condemning the biggest war criminals. Among the sentenced, in addition to Crasemann who was accused of having master-minded the massacre, was Field Marshal Kesselring, since it emerged that the reprisals were not carried out by platoon commanding officers’ orders but were organized from above. Of the forty-five wanted people, only two were condemned by the Venice trial. These were Captain Strauch and Commander Crasemann. Both were sentenced to prison terms for a period not exceeding six years. Kesselring was instead tried by a British military court in Mestre. Initially he was sentenced to be shot for all war crimes committed, including the massacres of Sant’Anna di Stazzema and the Fosse Ardeatine, but later the sentence was changed to life imprisonment. In 1948, however, the sentence was reduced to 21 years, until in 1952 Kesselring was released from prison for health reasons.
Kesselring died in a sanatorium at Bad Nauheim in West Germany, in 1960 aged 74 and was given a quasi-military funeral. Members of his battalion acted as his pallbearers and fired a rifle volley over his grave. His former chief of staff spoke for the veterans and described Kesselring as “a man of admirable strength of character whose care was for soldiers of all ranks”. ..
To this day the real, fully discoverable, reasons for the massacre remain uncertain. For example, it was not for any reprisal against partisan activity and killing of German soldiers by them for none happened in this area.
Will it be the same old story for what is happening in Ukraine now? How can the appallingness of war crimes ever be really punished? For isn’t war a crime in itself??
Meanwhile the birds in the nearby wetlands are preparing for their annual migration.
*