Thread by @ANPI_Scuola

#FascistCrimes — #Otd in 1944, in Bassano del Grappa, Italy, the Nazis and their fascist collaborators tricked 31 young #partisans into surrender and murdered them, leaving their bodies to hang from the trees lining the town's main boulevard>
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for 4 days. What led to this massacre? The ranks of the partisans had swelled considerably in the summer of 1944. Many young men "took to the mountains" also to escape the Fascist draft and war, and execution if >
#Thread #BassanodelGrappa @LouiseRawAuthor #26settembre

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they were found. That caused several problems, one being making it easier for informers to infiltrate the Resistance movement and traitors to gather information for the Nazi/Fascists who were getting ready to launch a series of massive anti-partisan raids. >
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The biggest of these raids was launched on the Grappa Massif, where around 1,200 partisans from different groups were stationed. It involved around 7,000 Nazi/Fascist troops and went on until September 28th 1944, with nearly 200 partisans killed or summarily executed.
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The blackest day of "Operation Piave" came with the mass-hanging of prisoners by the #Nazi/Fascists in Bassano del Grappa, on September 26, 1944. SS-Obersturmführer H. Andorfer announced that those who came forward would be employed in the Organizations >
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"Todt" or "FlaK", & would avoid prosecution. Teachers, priests, mothers convinced young men to accept, to save their lives. Some were executed in the most gruesome manners. The Nazis chose a tree-lined avenue and herded the prisoners there with a lorry carrying >
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telephone wire, that was used to hang the young men, one by one, until the avenue was lined with 31 bodies hanging from the trees. The massacre of partisan prisoners was ordered by the #Nazis and executed by their Italian #Fascist collaborators. >
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The task of passing the wire around the prisoners' neck was left to the "White Flames", a Fascist unit made up of 14-18 year-old volunteer recruits, that had been absorbed in the Nazi "FlaK" Squads. Some of these boys ran from tree to tree to pull on the legs of the >
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hanged prisoners who were not dying fast.
The bodies were left hanging from the trees in what was later renamed Martyrs Avenue, Bassano del Grappa, with a plaque reading "Bandit" on their chest.
It happened #Otd, September 26th, 1944.
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