17. The Ardeatine Massacre in 1944
In March 1944 a German column was attacked by partisans on the Via Rasella in Rome. Sixteen partisans attacked the Germans with a homemade bomb, comprised of TNT and iron pipes. The explosion killed 28 Germans instantly. Several more died of their injuries later. The partisans also opened fire on the Germans in the confusion following the explosion before dispersing into the gathering crowd. The dead Germans were troops of an SS Police Regiment. Though ethnic Germans from the Tyrol, most of the members of the regiment had seen service with the Italian regiments on the Russian Front earlier in the war, and had opted for service with the SS in Italy.
Reprisals by the Germans were swift and deadly. It was decided that 10 Italian prisoners would be executed for each of the SS killed in the attack. Kesselring received the order directly from Hitler, and Kappler – head of the SS in Rome – provided the number of prisoners required, with many of them already under the death sentence. In a rural area outside of the city, 335 Italian prisoners were executed by SS troops, in groups of five, in the Ardeatine Caves, near no longer used stone quarries. The Ardeatine Massacre was an example of the fate awaiting the staff of the hospital on the Tiber should their deception be discovered. Rumors of the massacre were rife in the city for the rest of the occupation.