Murder is a Crime, Not only vs the Person, their Family and Friends, it is a Crime vs Society. And that which Society does Not Condemn, it Condones!!

The Massacre of 560 women and children is a Travesty of monumental proportions.
Expediency, and Political "Considerations" Trumped Justice for 60 Years.

Finally Sant'Anna di Stazzema is receiving equity.

What now about the 400 other Massacres? The more familiar are Monte Sole (1830 victims) Marzabotto (800), Bardine San Terenzo (369), Via Rasella- Ardeatine caves, south of Rome, (335), Avanzi , Boves ,Ovaro, Bretto, Villadeati, and SO many others.

Once again, these are CIVILIANS (They Do NOT include the various Military, (Cefalonia, Kos, Corfu) or Partisan Massacres!!!

FIFTEEN THOUSAND Italian Civilians in FOUR HUNDRED different MASSACRES!!!!

[Previously transmitted in "The Annotico Report" on Wednesday, January 14, 2004]
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Thanks to Leon Radomile: Author of "Heritage -Italian American Style

TINY TOWN LOST IN TIDES OF HISTORY

New York Times
By Clifford J.Levy
April 18, 2004

SANT'ANNA DI STAZZEMA, Italy — This Tuscan village is nearly deserted, but a few survivors sometimes return: to visit the memorial, to gaze on hills once overrun by the Nazi SS, to clutch a handful of soil that, even now, is said to be mixed with the ashes of 560 people the Nazis rounded up, shot and then set afire in a few hours in midsummer 1944.

For years, the massacre stood as a symbol of a certain Italian ambivalence toward World War II. The victims — women, children, the elderly — were honored, but demands for justice were brushed aside. The nation was moving on.

Yet now, military prosecutors are reopening this grim chapter by charging at least seven former SS officers with taking part in the killings. Italy is not only delving into what happened in this hardscrabble community, it is also learning how officials covered up inquiries into events of that day.

"We hope finally that there will be justice," said a survivor, Mauro Pieri, 72, speaking in the square in front of the modest village church.

Mr. Pieri motioned. Over there was the house into which he and 30 others were herded by troops. Only four survived, cowering under bullet-riddled bodies. Here, in the square, troopers shot more than 100 villagers before using the church pews for a bonfire to dispose of the bodies.

"The thing that is still in my mind is the odor of the burning flesh," said another survivor, Enio Mancini, 67, caretaker of the memorial.

The massacre, on Aug. 12, 1944, occurred after Mussolini had been deposed, and Italian partisans were attacking retreating German troops. The 16th Division of the SS — for Schutzstaffel, the Nazi special police units — was evacuating towns to deny aid to the partisans. Learning that the SS was approaching Sant'Anna, which had been flooded with refugees, some men fled, thinking the women and children were not in danger.

Most of the SS members involved are dead, but Italian prosecutors located at least seven suspects in Germany. The trial of the first three — Alfred Schoneberg, 82; Gerhard Sommer, 82, and Ludwig Sonntag, 79 — is to begin on April 20. Prosecutors expect to try the three in absentia and will seek their extradition only if they are convicted.

The three deny any role in the massacre. Because of their ages, if found guilty they face house arrest for life in Italy.

The official interest in Sant'Anna was revived a decade ago. Prosecutors working on another found a cabinet full of yellowed files detailing Italian inquires into Nazi atrocities, including the one here. The cabinet was turned around, its drawers pressed against a wall.

The Italians had not been the only ones to examine Sant'Anna and then turn away. The United States Army conducted an inquiry in October 1944, including testimony from survivors and from an SS deserter. Army investigators found that "in many of the burnt-out houses, there still remain charred remains giving mute evidence of the massacre," according to their report.

The lead Italian prosecutor, Marco De Paolis, said in an interview that until the 1990's, the government seldom sought war-crimes charges against former Nazis. "You wouldn't think that something like that could be hidden," he said, "but everything had been blocked because of political considerations."

He said that after the war, Italy wanted warm relations with West Germany, and feared diplomatic repercussions from such cases. The American and British authorities had decided to prosecute only senior Nazis, he said. France and others did not pursue some Nazis and collaborators until recent decades...

With the case, the inevitable questions arise for Italy, similar to those that have long burdened countries from Germany to South Africa: What should the nation seek, reconciliation or retribution? What good can come from prosecutions so many years after the crimes?

Mr. De Paolis has a ready answer. He brought the case, he said, because he had no choice, given the ample evidence. "The reason we are doing this is the law," he said. He added that Parliament was also trying to make amends by investigating why the records were covered up.

Luigi Trucco, a lawyer for Mr. Schoneberg, said Mr. Schoneberg found the accusations deeply unfair. Mr. Trucco said Mr. Schoneberg — who lives in the Dusseldorf area and has had two strokes — was not involved in the massacre.

"There are some witnesses saying that he belonged to the SS battalion, and he was in Tuscany at that time, but there is no proof that he was in that village," Mr. Trucco said. "This is a very difficult trial from the position of the defense. These cases have been in the archives for many years for political reasons."

Mr. Sommer, another defendant, acknowledged on German television in 2002 that he was an officer of the SS division, but said, "I have an absolutely pure conscience."

It is unclear whether Germany would extradite any of the seven, but Mr. De Paolis said German prosecutors were conducting their own inquiry into Sant'Anna.

The Sant'Anna survivors know there is a certain futility in the case. After all, even if the Germans are convicted, they will have gone nearly all their lives unpunished. Still, the trial matters to many.

"At least the wives and children of these people, they now know that they have a criminal in their families," Mr. Pieri said. "For me, forgiveness does not exist."

For others, it does. Enrico Pieri, 70, a distant relative who was left orphaned by the massacre, said: "I have forgiven the Germans. I hate their former ideology but not their people. I have gotten on with my life. I have overcome the hate."

Photo: Mauro Pieri, left, and Ennio Mancini, center, survived a Nazi massacre in Sant'Anna di Stazzema; Enrico Pieri was orphaned. An Italian prosecutor's plan to try three Germans raises questions of retribution.

The New York Times > International > Europe > Tiny Town Lost in Tides of History
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/18/international/
europe/18TUSC.html
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