Janet Kinrade Dethick

The Arezzo Massacres A TuscanTragedy Janet Kinrade Dethick

This book examines the relationship between partisan activities and Nazi-fascist massacres (during which over one thousand civilians were killed ) in the Italian province of Arezzo during the spring and summer of 1944. It traces the growth of the partisan movement and the widening of its activities, beginning with the disarming of the Carabinieri and the cutting of telegraph wires and ending not only with attacks on German convoys but with actual battles with the German troops and their fascist supporters The clamorous massacres of Vallucciole, Partina, Civitella in Valdichiana, San Pancrazio, Castelnuovo dei Sabbioni, San Giustino and San Polo are described as are all other instances when smaller numbers of civilians were killed in reprisals Sources include partisans' and survivors' individual testimonies, memorial tablets and monuments, accounts written by village priests, local historians and British soldiers, and German and Allied War Diaries