9 July, Commemoration 79th anniversary of the Massacre of the 67 Martyrs of Fossoli

On the morning of 12 July 1944, 69 political internees were taken from the Fossoli concentration camp by order of the Gestapo and taken to the Cibeno shooting range to be shot. They are men of different backgrounds and ages, from various regions of Italy.

All were imprisoned at Fossoli because they were opponents of Nazi-Fascism. The previous evening, after roll call, 71 internees are called and told to prepare to leave for Germany. Bernardo Carenini is excluded from the list, while Teresio Olivelli manages to hide inside the camp. At dawn on 12 July, in three stages, the 69 prisoners are loaded onto trucks and taken to the firing range a few kilometres from the camp. They are made to line up at the edge of a pit, which some Jewish internees had been forced to dig the day before, and hear the sentence: death sentence in retaliation for an attack on German soldiers in Genoa. Even the intervention of the bishop of Carpi, Vigilio Federico Dalla Zuanna, who rushed to the scene, proves useless and the death sentence is carried out. Only two internees from the second group, Mario Fasoli and Eugenio Jemina, manage to escape and save themselves hidden by the partisan movement. On 17 and 18 May 1945, less than a month after the liberation, the exhumation and recognition of the 67 victims takes place. The solemn funeral takes place in Milan Cathedral with great and emotional participation of the citizens. © Fondazione Fossoli

© Fondazione Fossoli Download here the e-book version of the volume Uomini Nomi Memoria. Fossoli 12 luglio 1944