The Massacre of Salussola consists in the

execution Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, is the state-sanctioned practice of deliberately killing a person as a punishment for an actual or supposed crime, usually following an authorized, rule-governed process to conclude that ...

, preceded by

torture Torture is the deliberate infliction of severe pain or suffering on a person for reasons such as punishment, extracting a confession, interrogation for information, or intimidating third parties. Some definitions are restricted to acts ...

, of 20 Italian Partisans, committed in retaliation by Italian Fascist soldiers on March 9, 1945 in the town of

Salussola Salussola is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Biella in the Italian region Piedmont, located about northeast of Turin and about southeast of Biella. Salussola borders the following municipalities: Carisio, Cavaglià, Cerrione, Dorz ...

(

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

The facts

In late February 1945, the 109th

Garibaldi Brigade The ''Brigate Garibaldi'' or Garibaldi Brigades were partisan units aligned with the Italian Communist Party active in the armed resistance against both German and Italian fascist forces during World War II. The Brigades were mostly made up o ...

, was moving across

Piedmont it, Piemontese , population_note = , population_blank1_title = , population_blank1 = , demographics_type1 = , demographics1_footnotes = , demographics1_title1 = , demographics1_info1 = , demographics1_title2 ...

( N.W. Italy) which at the time was occupied by German troops and held by the Italian MVSN, ("

Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale The Voluntary Militia for National Security ( it, Milizia Volontaria per la Sicurezza Nazionale, MVSN), commonly called the Blackshirts ( it, Camicie Nere, CCNN, singular: ) or (singular: ), was originally the paramilitary wing of the Nation ...

"). During the march, a detachment of "Zoppis" made up of 33 partisans, stopped to rest in a farmhouse in the Province of

Vercelli Vercelli (; pms, Vërsèj ), is a city and ''comune'' of 46,552 inhabitants (January 1, 2017) in the Province of Vercelli, Piedmont, northern Italy. One of the oldest urban sites in northern Italy, it was founded, according to most historians, ...

. In the early hours of March 1, they were taken by surprise and taken prisoner by a

Command Command may refer to: Computing * Command (computing), a statement in a computer language * COMMAND.COM, the default operating system shell and command-line interpreter for DOS * Command key, a modifier key on Apple Macintosh computer keyboards * ...

of Italian

Fascist Fascism is a far-right, authoritarian, ultra-nationalist political ideology and movement,: "extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the ...

soldiers. The thirty-three men were all taken to different places and a group of twenty-one was led towards the small town of

Biella Biella (; pms, Biela; la, Bugella) is a city and ''comune'' in the northern Italian region of Piedmont, the capital of the province of the same name, with a population of 44,324 as of 31 December 2017. It is located about northeast of Turin a ...

. The Fascista soldier then pretended to create an exchange with German prisoners. but in

, after a whole night of

and violences documented by the only one survivor, the prisoners were killed by

machine guns A machine gun is a fully automatic, rifled autoloading firearm designed for sustained direct fire with rifle cartridges. Other automatic firearms such as automatic shotguns and automatic rifles (including assault rifles and battle rifles) ...

at dawn on March 9, 1945. The

massacre A massacre is the killing of a large number of people or animals, especially those who are not involved in any fighting or have no way of defending themselves. A massacre is generally considered to be morally unacceptable, especially when per ...

was intended as a

reprisal A reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them. Since the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP 1), reprisals in the laws of war are extreme ...

to an attack conducted a few days earlier by other Partisans to a column of military trucks of the "Montebello"’s Fascist Command, which were moving through

. A truck was destroyed in the attack and four soldiers killed.

The victims

Note: ''Alias'' ( ''noms de guerre'') were a very important part in the life of the Partisans. Mainly used to conceal the true identity (it was a clandestine army) the Alias name outlined also in most cases the character and the personality of the owners. It thus enabled at the same time to hide oneself outside, and to be recognized inside among the other Partisans for a personal, moral or physical characteristic.http://www.anpi.it/media/uploads/patria/2009/3/10-15_COLOMBARA.pdf ''Tom, Lupo, Fulmine e gli altri L’universo dei nomi di battaglia partigiani (Tom, Wolf, Lightning and the others: the univers of the Partisans' war names)'' * Buscaglino Francesco ''alias'' "Barbera" born in Pray (Bi) on 1902 * Costa Luigi ''alias'' "Gigi" born in Masserano (Bi) on 1906 * Foglia Bruno ''alias'' "Ebano" born in Crevacuore (Bi) on 1926 * Marchesini Valter ''alias'' "Orlando" born in Crevacuore (Bi) on 1925 * Menti Gino ''alias'' "Colassi" born in Pray (Bi) on 1914 * Nicolini Angelo ''alias'' "Budda" born in Cureggio (No) on 1925 * Ortoleva Giovanni ''alias'' "Iacon" born in Isnello (Pa) on 1921 * Picco Giuseppe ''alias'' "Trento" born in Roasio (Vc) on 1916 * Pela Francesco ''alias'' "Cirillo" born in Pray (Bi) il 1893 * Ronchi Antonio ''alias'' "Figaro" born in Lessona (Bi) on 1920 * Riboldazzi Guido ''alias'' "Pulcino" born in Crevacuore (Bi) on 1923 * Rocca Florindo ''alias'' "Lince" born in Crocemosso ora Vallemosso (Bi) on 1920 * Rocca Giulio ''alias'' "Gino" born in Crocemosso ora Vallemosso (Bi) on 1920 * Sesia Gaudenzio ''alias'' "Sesia" born in Novara on 1925 * Salis Gerardo ''alias'' "Palmiro" born ind Asigliano (Vc) on 1926 * Tempia Valenta Edo ''alias'' "Brunello" born in Mezzana (Bi) on 1926 * Tondi Enrico ''alias'' "Vecio" born in Lessona (Bi) on 1900 * Tondi Dante ''alias'' "Legnano" born in Lessona (Bi) on 1915 * Tugnolo Rolando ''alias'' "Dispari" born in Collobiano (Vc) on 1926 * Tosin Valentino ''alias'' "Bissa" born in Mezzana (Bi) on 1911

References

Sources

''ad memoriam'' (in Italian) audio testimony of the only partisan who escaped the massacre

"Slaughter's room" set up in the Museum–Laboratory of gold and stone in Salussola.

names and images of the 20 murdered partisans.

(in Italian). * ttp://www.difesa.it/Ministro/Compiti_e_Attivita/Interventi142/2002-03/Pagine/Commemorazione_della_strage_di_Salussola_141.aspx The speech of the Minister of Defense Antonio Martino in 2002(in Italian)
Photos of Commemoration 2002 – Ministry of Defence

The Partisan "Pittore" is named Knight of the Republic
(in Italian) {{Coord, 45, 48, N, 8, 05, E, display=title, type:country_region:IT March 1945 events Massacres in 1945 Battles and operations of World War II Massacres in Italy Collective punishment 1945 in Italy Mass murder in 1945 World War II massacres

The facts

The victims

See also

References

Sources