The Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills (german: Operationszone Alpenvorland (OZAV); it, Zona d'operazione delle Prealpi) was a
Nazi German
Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
occupation zone in the
sub-Alpine
Montane ecosystems are found on the slopes of mountains. The alpine climate in these regions strongly affects the ecosystem because temperatures fall as elevation increases, causing the ecosystem to stratify. This stratification is a crucial f ...
area
in Italy during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
.
Origin and geography
OZAV was established on 10 September 1943 by the occupying German
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previou ...
, as a response to the
Allied Armistice with Italy
The Armistice of Cassibile was an armistice signed on 3 September 1943 and made public on 8 September between the Kingdom of Italy and the Allies during World War II.
It was signed by Major General Walter Bedell Smith for the Allies and Bri ...
proclaimed two days earlier following the
Allied invasion of Italy
The Allied invasion of Italy was the Allied amphibious landing on mainland Italy that took place from 3 September 1943, during the Italian campaign of World War II. The operation was undertaken by General Sir Harold Alexander's 15th Army Gro ...
. It comprised the provinces of
Belluno
Belluno (; lld, Belum; vec, Belùn) is a town and province in the Veneto region of northern Italy. Located about north of Venice, Belluno is the capital of the province of Belluno and the most important city in the Eastern Dolomites regi ...
,
Bolzano
Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...
and
Trento
Trento ( or ; Ladin and lmo, Trent; german: Trient ; cim, Tria; , ), also anglicized as Trent, is a city on the Adige River in Trentino-Alto Adige/Südtirol in Italy. It is the capital of the autonomous province of Trento. In the 16th cen ...
. The
Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral
The Operational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral (german: Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland, OZAK; or colloquially: ''Operationszone Adria''; it, Zona d'operazioni del Litorale adriatico; hr, Operativna zona Jadransko primorje; sl, Operacijs ...
, comprising the provinces of
Udine
Udine ( , ; fur, Udin; la, Utinum) is a city and ''comune'' in north-eastern Italy, in the middle of the Friuli Venezia Giulia region, between the Adriatic Sea and the Alps (''Alpi Carniche''). Its population was 100,514 in 2012, 176,000 with ...
,
Görz,
Trieste
Trieste ( , ; sl, Trst ; german: Triest ) is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is the capital city, and largest city, of the autonomous region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, one of two autonomous regions which are not subdivided into pr ...
,
Pula
Pula (; also known as Pola, it, Pola , hu, Pòla, Venetian; ''Pola''; Istriot: ''Puola'', Slovene: ''Pulj'') is the largest city in Istria County, Croatia, and the seventh-largest city in the country, situated at the southern tip of the ...
,
Rijeka
Rijeka ( , , ; also known as Fiume hu, Fiume, it, Fiume ; local Chakavian: ''Reka''; german: Sankt Veit am Flaum; sl, Reka) is the principal seaport and the third-largest city in Croatia (after Zagreb and Split). It is located in Prim ...
,
Kvarner Gulf
The Kvarner Gulf (, or , la, Sinus Flanaticus or ), sometimes also Kvarner Bay, is a bay in the northern Adriatic Sea, located between the Istrian peninsula and the northern Croatian Littoral mainland. The bay is a part of Croatia's internal w ...
and
Ljubljana
Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center.
During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the a ...
, was established on the same day. Both operational zones were separate from the
Italian Social Republic
The Italian Social Republic ( it, Repubblica Sociale Italiana, ; RSI), known as the National Republican State of Italy ( it, Stato Nazionale Repubblicano d'Italia, SNRI) prior to December 1943 but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò ...
(RSI), based in
Salò
Salò (; la, Salodium) is a town and ''comune'' in the Province of Brescia in the region of Lombardy (northern Italy) on the banks of Lake Garda, on which it has the longest promenade. The city was the seat of government of the Italian Social ...
on
Lake Garda
Lake Garda ( it, Lago di Garda or ; lmo, label= Eastern Lombard, Lach de Garda; vec, Ƚago de Garda; la, Benacus; grc, Βήνακος) is the largest lake in Italy.
It is a popular holiday location in northern Italy, about halfway between ...
, which governed the remainder of Italy that had not yet been occupied by the Allies.
Administration
OZAV was administered by High Commissioner
Franz Hofer
Franz Hofer (November 27, 1902 – February 18, 1975) was, in the time of the Third Reich, the Nazi Gauleiter of the Tyrol and Vorarlberg. As the Nazi party chief for the Tirol/Vorarlberg province he was the most powerful figure in the regi ...
. The zone was administered as part of the
Reichsgau
A (plural ) was an administrative subdivision created in a number of areas annexed by Nazi Germany between 1938 and 1945.
Overview
The term was formed from the words (realm, empire) and , the latter a deliberately medieval-sounding word w ...
of
Tirol-Vorarlberg.
The capital of the zone was
Bolzano
Bolzano ( or ; german: Bozen, (formerly ); bar, Bozn; lld, Balsan or ) is the capital city of the province of South Tyrol in northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third ...
. Hofer wanted to amalgamate the operation zone to his Gau and thus bring forth the reunification of Tyrol and the territorial resurrection of the old Austrian crownland of Tyrol. This did not take place, as Hitler wanted to show consideration for Mussolini, although the Salo government had almost zero influence in the region during German rule.
The Italian influence was resisted and dismantled by the Germans, who decreed the restoration of the provincial borders of 1919 (plus the addition of Belluno), and forced the resignation of the ethnic Italian ''
Podestà
Podestà (, English: Potestate, Podesta) was the name given to the holder of the highest civil office in the government of the cities of Central and Northern Italy during the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, it meant the chief magistrate of a city ...
'' in
South Tyrol
it, Provincia Autonoma di Bolzano – Alto Adige lld, Provinzia Autonoma de Balsan/Bulsan – Südtirol
, settlement_type = Autonomous province
, image_skyline =
, image_alt ...
who were replaced by German-speaking mayors recruited from the local population identifying with the Third Reich.
[Steininger 2003, p. 71] In September 1943, the German language was given equal status with the Italian language.
German and
Ladin
Ladin may refer to:
*Ladin language, a language in northern Italy, often classified as a Rhaeto-Romance language
* Ladin people, the inhabitants of the Dolomite Alps region of northern Italy
See also
* Laden (disambiguation)
*Ladino (disambigua ...
names of streets and localities were displayed alongside Italian names.
Fascist and Italian-language newspapers were shut down and the importing of newspapers from the RSI was banned.
The Fascist party was outlawed.
Laws were introduced limiting the immigration of Italians escaping military service from the RSI.
However, the Italian lira remained the legal tender.
The effect of these policies was a rapid and draconian reversal of the stringent policy of Italianization which had been imposed on the region by the Italian government beginning in the early 1920s.
Military units in the region came under the ''Befehlshaber Operationszone Alpenvorland'' commanded by ''General der Infanterie''
Joachim Witthöft __NOTOC__
Joachim Witthöft (23 September 1887 – 7 July 1966) was a German general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross. Witthöft commanded Army Group South Rear Area (as Army Group B) during the 1942 ...
, a former divisional commander in the
XXVII Army Corps of the
German Army.
Collaboration
Primary enforcement of German regulations was performed by the ''Südtiroler Ordnungsdienst''
[Steininger 2003, p. 70] (SOD, the "South Tyrol" civil police), which had been recruited from the
ADO (''Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Optanten für Deutschland'' or Association of Optants for Germany); it was mirrored in Trento (Trentino) by the ''Corpo di Sicurezza Trentino'' (CST) and in the Belluno province by the ''Corpo di Sicurezza Bellunese'' (CSB), both composed of people drafted from all male residents between the eighteen and fifty years of age. The SOD was also actively involved in the pursuit of the Jews and the well-known “''Dableiber''” (those who had chosen Italy when they were compelled to declare their allegiance), like
Josef Mayr-Nusser
Josef Mayr-Nusser (27 December 1910 – 24 February 1945) was an Italian Roman Catholic who served as the President of the Saint Vincent de Paul Conference of the Bolzano division as well as a member of Catholic Action. He is known best for refus ...
, Michael Gamper, Friedl Volgger, Rudolf Posch, and Josef Ferrari. Many of the ''Dableiber'' were current or former Catholic priests and were persecuted by the Germans.
Deportation of Jews from the Alpine Foothills
On 12 September 1943, almost immediately after the start of the German occupation,
SS and police leader for the Alpine Foothills
Karl Brunner issued an order that all Jews in the region were to be arrested.
Many of those from the Jewish communities in the region were deported and murdered in the
extermination camp
Nazi Germany used six extermination camps (german: Vernichtungslager), also called death camps (), or killing centers (), in Central Europe during World War II to systematically murder over 2.7 million peoplemostly Jewsin the Holocaust. The v ...
s.
The region was also home to the
Bolzano Transit Camp
Bolzano was a transit camp operated by Nazi Germany in Bolzano from 1944 to 3 May 1945 during World War II. It was one of the largest Nazi ''Lager'' on Italian soil, along with those of Fossoli, Borgo San Dalmazzo and Trieste.
History
After ...
, which was active from summer 1944 until the end of the war and was used for the transit of Italian Jews to Auschwitz and other camps.
Atrocities
The region was the scene of some of the last German atrocities during World War II. Towards the end of the war, South Tyrol saw the presence of over 70,000 German soldiers and members of the police, ready for a possible last defence. After the German surrender in Italy, celebrations of the Italian-speaking population broke out; which saw 11 people killed in
Merano
Merano (, , ) or Meran () is a city and ''comune'' in South Tyrol, northern Italy. Generally best known for its spa resorts, it is located within a basin, surrounded by mountains standing up to above sea level, at the entrance to the Passeier V ...
on 30 April and 41 people killed at Bolzano on 3 May 1945, when Wehrmacht and SS units fired on civilians. This and the ongoing encounters between German troops and Italian partisans has been referred to as the Battle of Bolzano ( it, Battaglia di Bolzano).
Blame for these killings has been laid on SS and police leader Karl Brunner,
but also on the chaotic circumstances on both the Italian and German side following the surrender.
See also
*
Areas annexed by Nazi Germany
There were many areas annexed by Germany both immediately before and throughout the course of World War II. Territories that were part of Germany before the annexations were known as the "Altreich" (Old Reich).
Fully annexed territories
Acc ...
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills
Alpine Foothills
The Alpine foothills, or Prealps (german: Voralpen; french: Préalpes; it, Prealpi; ), may refer generally to any foothills at the base of the Alps in Europe. They are the transition zone between the High Alps and the Swiss Plateau and the Bava ...
History of Tyrol (region)
Italian Social Republic
Alpine Foothills
The Alpine foothills, or Prealps (german: Voralpen; french: Préalpes; it, Prealpi; ), may refer generally to any foothills at the base of the Alps in Europe. They are the transition zone between the High Alps and the Swiss Plateau and the Bava ...
1944 in Italy
1943 establishments in Italy
1945 disestablishments in Italy
States and territories established in 1943
States and territories disestablished in 1945