President of the Republic Sergio Mattarella paid tribute Friday to the victims of the WWII Ardeatine Caves massacre outside Rome on the 79th anniversary of the killings.
Defense Minister Guido Crosetto, Lower House and Senate speakers
Lorenzo Fontana and Ignazio La Russa and Rome Mayor Roberto
Gualtieri also attended the commemoration.
Mattarella laid a laurel wreath at the site on Rome's southern
outskirts where on March 24, 1944, 335 Italians were executed by
Nazi officers in a reprisal for a partisan attack that killed 33
German soldiers in central Rome on a street near the Trevi
Fountain.
In retaliation, for every one German killed, the army seized 10
Italians including civilians as well as numerous political
prisoners and Jews who were in custody, plus five more who were
also executed.
Both men and boys were executed and their bodies dumped in the
caves where the memorial is now located.
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