The presidents of Germany and Italy joined on Sunday to commemorate the sad the eighty year anniversary of the Marzabotto massacre, the biggest civilian massacre done by Nazi soldiers in Western Europe during the Second World War.
In Marzabotto from September 29 to October 5, 1944, the Nazi Waffen SS with the assistance of fascists murdered at least 770 Italian non-combatants. It also affected 271 children, women, and elderly people. This brutality was as a result of the villagers supporting those Italians who were against the fascist regime.
Current Italian President Sergio Mattarella and the current German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier were special guests at the commemoration ceremony to honor the victims of the massacre. To commemorate those who lost their lives during this heinous act they placed a wreath.
President Steinmeier attended with what he referred to as deep humility, as he remembered that the massacre was just one of the terrible acts committed by the SS and Wehrmacht in Italy, which has left a great sorrow in the country.
Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, the president of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, presided over the memorial mass in the church of Marzabotto where victims of the massacre are buried in the church’s crypt. This rather sad assembly was a call for recognition of the sins done and remembering to stay together and remain peaceful.
