The Arezzo Massacres
Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni
With Albert Dickinson at San Pancrazio
My good friend Albert Dickinson and his wife Lily went back many times to Italy with the Monte Cassino Association, and also visited Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni on their own account. Albert's unit, 2 Somerset Light Infantry, was one of the three battalions that made up 28 Brigade of 4 Infantry Division. Another battalion, the 2/4 Hampshire Regiment, was the first allied unit to enter the village on 21 July and discover that three weeks earlier the Germans had carried out a massacre.
Albert told me a story which had been passed on to him by a veteran from the Hampshires. On arriving in the village they were met by a man who described the massacre and said he had saved himself by jumping over a wall and grabbing hold of a tree. The massacre had taken place in the square outside the church in the now-abandoned part of the village. Over the wall is a steep drop. Albert had never known whether or not to believe what the man had said. He asked me to go and find out.
Albert told me a story which had been passed on to him by a veteran from the Hampshires. On arriving in the village they were met by a man who described the massacre and said he had saved himself by jumping over a wall and grabbing hold of a tree. The massacre had taken place in the square outside the church in the now-abandoned part of the village. Over the wall is a steep drop. Albert had never known whether or not to believe what the man had said. He asked me to go and find out.
Albert's story leads to my researches
Monument to the victims of the massacre
One Sunday afternoon in the autumn of 2004 my husband and I parked outside the village cemetery in Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni. It took only a few minutes to find the monument to the victims, after which went into the adjacent modern church where a nun informed us that in nearby Matole some other men had been shot at a later date. As we emerged from the church we met a man coming out of the cemetery. My husband asked him if he could explain why these massacres had taken place.
'It depends who you talk to,' he replied somewhat shiftily. I decided at this point that the only way to arrive at any kind of answer to the question was to visit the library in Arezzo.
'It depends who you talk to,' he replied somewhat shiftily. I decided at this point that the only way to arrive at any kind of answer to the question was to visit the library in Arezzo.
There I found a list of all the massacres that had taken place in the Province of Arezzo and a similar list of actions carried out by various groups of partisans against the occupying German troops in the province in 1944. On 3 July, the day preceding the first massacre, the band of partisans known as the 'Bigi' mounted an attack on a German convoy. It was travelling along the the SS408 through the Chianti hills. Four lorries were destroyed, and nine Germans were killed. German troops belonging to the Hermann Goering Division went into two of the nearby villages - Castelnuovo dei Sabbione and Meleto - and took their revenge.
My book, The Arezzo Massacres, in which I describe the events leading up to this and all the other massacres which took place in the Province of Arezzo, came out in 2005 (Edizioni Duca Della Corgna, Castiglione del Lago), The second edition, which contains several corrections, is available from Lulu.com. (SEE PUBLICATIONS PAGE)
During the winter of 2007-8 it was decided to bring out a version in Italian, translated from the English by Serenella Pelaggi. The problem was that no Italian publisher was prepared to take it on. An editor in the Province of Arezzo said that he was interested in the work, but it would have to be approved by 'qualified persons' before he could publish it. For qualified persons read university dons whose political persuasions lie to the left – ironically the same as mine – but who feel bound to oppose what they regard as 'revisionism', namely the examination of new evidence that might render necessary the updating of historical texts and might lead to a change in public opinion where the Resistance is concerned. I had come across political censorship for the first time at first hand. It is still not possible to assert that partisan attacks on German troops were behind most of the reprisals that took place in central and northern Italy after 8 September 1943.
The volume is now available as a website in Italian. It is reassuring to learn from the statistics that is being visited frequently.
My book, The Arezzo Massacres, in which I describe the events leading up to this and all the other massacres which took place in the Province of Arezzo, came out in 2005 (Edizioni Duca Della Corgna, Castiglione del Lago), The second edition, which contains several corrections, is available from Lulu.com. (SEE PUBLICATIONS PAGE)
During the winter of 2007-8 it was decided to bring out a version in Italian, translated from the English by Serenella Pelaggi. The problem was that no Italian publisher was prepared to take it on. An editor in the Province of Arezzo said that he was interested in the work, but it would have to be approved by 'qualified persons' before he could publish it. For qualified persons read university dons whose political persuasions lie to the left – ironically the same as mine – but who feel bound to oppose what they regard as 'revisionism', namely the examination of new evidence that might render necessary the updating of historical texts and might lead to a change in public opinion where the Resistance is concerned. I had come across political censorship for the first time at first hand. It is still not possible to assert that partisan attacks on German troops were behind most of the reprisals that took place in central and northern Italy after 8 September 1943.
The volume is now available as a website in Italian. It is reassuring to learn from the statistics that is being visited frequently.