It was a Thursday on June 29, 1944 when a column of thick, black smoke rose from Civitella, clearly visible even from the other side of the Valdichiana. It was impossible to think in those moments what was happening within the ancient walls of the medieval village, where the Nazi-fascist fury was destroying entire families, killing defenseless civilians. A retaliation justified, according to the military, by what happened a few days earlier. On Sunday 18 June four German soldiers were inside the after-work club, in the rooms where today there is the memory room and the town club. Suddenly Renzino’s partisans, Edoardo Succhielli, burst in. A partisan gang active in the area whose intentions were to disarm the military. A soldier reacted by starting a shootout which immediately killed two German soldiers, seriously injured a third who died the following day and wounded the fourth soldier in the leg who managed to escape, once the partisans and civilians had gone away, carrying the comrade seriously injured.
Terror descended on Civitella. The inhabitants fled, fearing the reaction of the German command. The parish priest, Don Alcide Lazzeri, but also other citizens of Civitella explained their lack of involvement in what had happened. The inhabitants returned to the village: the Germans implied that there would be no repercussions. In those days there was also a firefight between Nazis and partisans who lost one of their men. In fact, it seemed that the German fury for what had happened at the after-work club had been exhausted in this clash, some historians maintain. The inhabitants thus resumed their normal lives until June 29, the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, patrons of Civitella.
At dawn the Nazis, supported by some Italians – witnesses in fact remember hearing some of those who were alongside the military speak in Italian – broke into the town. There was no escape for those who found themselves in Civitella, San Pancrazio and Cornia. Even the parish priest who was celebrating mass and who offered his life to save that of his parishioner was killed without mercy. In total, 244 defenseless and innocent civilians lost their lives that day. One of the most brutal massacres of the Second World War in Italy with some dark sides, still today under the lens of historians involved in the analysis of the papers of the Nazi and English troops.
Matteo Marzotti
