The Ardeatine Caves Massacre was one of several massacres that occurred in Italy, after Italy capitulated to the Allies and Germany subsequently occupied the country. Germany and Italy were former allies, but the moment news of Italy’s deal with the Allies became public, German soldiers began slaughtering Italian soldiers and even massacring citizens. Just a few months after Germany’s occupation of Rome, an incident occurred between rebels and a German police force that led to the Ardeatine Caves Massacre.
On March 23, 1944, the day before the massacre, a group of German police was marching down Via Rasella in Rome when 16 members of the Patriotic Action Group attacked them. These Italian rebels planted an explosive device by the road. It immediately killed 28 members of the German police and two civilians. The death toll climbed over the next two days. Forty-two police died in total. Thankfully, those numbers were lower when the massacre was carried out because the punishment for each dead policeman was to be ten dead Italians.
Initially, the plan devised by the German military was to murder ten criminals, who were already sentenced to death, for every German policeman who was killed. The perpetrators were never caught, so the punishment was to fall to others. However, there were nowhere near enough prisoners awaiting death to satisfy the numbers needed, so they used Jewish prisoners, death row prisoners, prisoners who were simply in holding after the day’s attack and even civilians. In total, they rounded up 335 people for slaughter.
Rumor has it that the order for the massacre came down from Hitler, though it was not his idea. It was the idea of Lt. Colonel Herbert Kappler and Lt. General Kurt Malzer of the Shutzstaffel. There is some contention as to whether Hitler actually gave the order, but he did know about the plan and his men behaved as if they had received an order, so it is assumed that Hitler okayed the massacre. Some say he first suggested they attack Rome, but then gave his men 24 hours to carry out the massacre. The entire operation was kept secret from the public. In other words, the people of Rome were not given an opportunity to offer up the criminals responsible or try to stop the impending atrocity. They had no idea it was even happening.
The day after the Via Rasella attack, Captain Erich Priebke and Captain Karl Hass of the SS led the massacre. They and their men took the victims to the Ardeatine Caves in Rome. There, they forced their victims inside, had them kneel five in a row and shot each of them in the back of the head. When each victim had been shot, the Germans used explosives to close off the caves. Not all victims died when they were shot, as evidenced by the positions in which they were later found. They may not have even died after the explosions, which means they suffered inside the caves until they bled to death, suffocated or starved. Their bodies were retrieved roughly one year later.
Six of the men involved in the Ardeatine Caves Massacre were later given prison sentences. However, all death sentences involved were later reduced. Priebke was among the Nazi war criminals that fled to South America. He was not tried until many years later after he outraged people around the world by appearing in the news talking about his part in the massacre. He was extradited after a long legal process and put in jail.
Sources
Ardeatine Caves Massacre, retrieved 8/15/11, ushmm.org/wlc/en/article.php?ModuleId=10007940