“Unraveling the Mystery: Why Italy Escaped a Post-War Reckoning for Its Atrocities”
Then, after entering WWII in June 1940, Italian troops participated in the invasion and/or occupation of more territories in France, Greece, Yugoslavia, East and North Africa as well as the Soviet Union.
Across all these territories, and throughout this period, Fascist forces engaged in regular war crimes and crimes against humanity, targeting enemy combatants, partisan forces and civilian populations.
A regular protagonist of such occurrences was General, and later Field Marshal, Rodolfo Graziani.
Graziani had distinguished himself by conducting a brutal anti-insurgency campaign in Libya, culminating with the execution of the resistance leader Omar al-Mukhtar on September 16, 1931. According to historian Ali Abdullatif Ahmida, writing for The Cambridge World History of Genocide, al-Mukhtar was but one among an estimated 83,000 victims of Graziani’s colonial campaign.
Marshal Graziani went on to offer his services during the conquest of Ethiopia, overseeing the mass murder of prisoners, the use of banned weapons such as poison gas, and the bombing of Red Cross hospitals and ambulances.
After achieving victory, Graziani was appointed Viceroy in charge of the new colony. On February 19, 1937, the Viceroy was almost killed in an assassination attempt, which unleashed a wave of reprisals against local officials and civilians. This massacre, known as ‘Yekatit 12’ in the Amharic language, is cited as resulting in perhaps as many as 30,000 deaths.
Some weeks later, on May 20, 1937, Italian troops perpetrated another infamous atrocity, the massacre of up to 1,000 monks at the Debre Libanos monastery.
