In my Report of two days ago,  a London Guardian article "Another WWII Massacre of Italian Civilians found in 'Cupboard of Shame' ", spoke of newly discovered "secreted" evidence of 560 Italian civilians,  80% of whom were women, children and elderly people, that were massacred in Sant'Anna di Stazzema, in northern Tuscany in 1944.

I went on to mention that 15,000 Italian civilians, were massacred in 400 separate slaughters throughout Italy, by German troops as the allies advanced during WWII,
the more familiar being Monte Sole (1830 victims) Marzabotto,in the province of Bologna (800), Bardine San Terenzo (369), Via Rasella- Ardeatine caves, south of Rome, (335), Avanzi , Boves ,Ovaro, Bretto, Villadeati, and SO many others.

I thought it worthwhile to share this mesage that I recieved from  Anthony Ghezzo, who lived in Italy during WWII as a teenager, and immigrated to the US in 1956.
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Richard:

THANK YOU for bringing up the Italian Massacres. Stazzema was a disgraceful massacre that the Allies didn't give the light of the day. For the local newspapers controlled by English and Americans it was more important to fill the pages with the progress of their armies rather than be bothered with the massacres caused by the Germans to the Italian population.

Florence was liberated August 11 and the massacre of Stazzema happened the following day. Stazzema is only 40 miles west of Florence, but I did not hear anything about that massacre for years.

As a matter of a fact, I did not hear anything about Monte Sole and Marzabotto for three years. Marzabotto is roughly 55 miles north of Florence on the Apennine mountains between Florenze and Bologna. I have been many, many times to Monte Sole and Marzabotto (a close friend of mine, Dante Palmieri, lost 5 members of his family; his wife Silvana, at that time 15, lived on Monte Sole when the massacre took place (September 30) and survived only because she had gone to visit an aunt a few miles away.

But I'm very, very familiar with the area, although I never had the chance to visit Sant'Anna di Stazzema. I have however read, and highly recommend "Silence on Monte Sole" by Jack Olsen.

As your article pointed out, there were massacres taking place everywhere in Italy. The small towns on top of mountains or hills were the most targeted because german hoodlums got drunk with wine stolen from farms, and they loved to empty their machine-guns magazines on civilian population.

Away from the cities, soldiers (the retrogard was composed mostly of SS fanatics) went rampant without the control of the Feldgendarmerie (Military Police) or the regular army (Wehrmacht) which were more disciplined.

They (the SS) were trained to enjoy killing and they proved it thousand times everywhere in Italy.

Regards,
Anthony