Nazi troops killed at least 770 civilians at Monte Sole in the largest massacre of civilians by the Waffen SS in western Europe during world war two.

Italy's president Sergio Mattarella will be joined by his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Sunday at a ceremony to mark the 80th anniversary of the Marzabotto massacre.

Between 29 September and 5 October 1944, Waffen SS troops killed at least 770 Italian civilians - mostly women, children and the elderly - in the Monte Sole area in the Appenines near Bologna in north-eastern Italy.

Mattarella and Steinmeier will commemerate the victims of the atrocity, the largest massacre of civilians committed by the Waffen SS in western Europe during world war two.

Ottant’anni fa l'eccidio di Monte Sole o strage di #Marzabotto, in cui le truppe naziste uccisero 770 persone. Da quel #29settembre 1944 riparte la nuova stagione di #PassatoEPresente in onda da domani 30 settembre alle 13.15 su #Rai3, alle 20.30 su #RaiStoria e poi su #RaiPlay. pic.twitter.com/RxhhHOpEf9

— Rai Storia (@RaiStoria) September 29, 2024

"The Marzabotto massacre is one of the many crimes of the SS and Wehrmacht committed in Italy" - Steinmeier stated - "Crimes that, as we know, left deep wounds in Italy."

Steinmeier will follow in the footsteps of his predecessor Johannes Rau who, 20 years ago, travelled to Marzabotto and expressed his country's "profound sorrow" and "shame" for the massacre.

Cardinal Matteo Zuppi, president of the Italian Bishops' Conference, will celebrate a memorial Mass on Sunday in the Marzabotto church whose crypt holds the bodies of the 770 civilians slaughtered 80 years ago.  

Marzabotto Massacre

Described in Wehrmacht papers as an "annihilation operation" - according to the NS-Täter in Italien website which documents German massacres in Italy during the second world war - the mass killing occurred in the mountain villages of Marzabotto, Grizzana Morandi and Monzuno. 

The retreating Nazi troops, aided by Italian fascist collaborators, indiscriminately slaughtered at least 770 people in reprisal for the local support given to the Stella Rossa partisans (partigiani) freedom fighters.

The Nazi troops were mostly under the command of Walter Reder who in 1948 was extradited to Italy and tried in Bologna for his role in the Marzabotto Massacre and several other war-time atrocities committed on Italian soil.

Reder was sentenced to life imprisonment in Gaeta, south of Rome, where he began a long campaign seeking his release - acknowledging his guilt and begging forgiveness for his crimes.

In 1985, after lengthy negotiations between both the Italian and Austrian governments and the Catholic Church, at the instruction of then Italian prime minister Bettino Craxi and with the agreement of Austrian chancellor Fred Sinowatz, Reder was released and transferred to Austria.

After returning to his home country, Reder swiftly retracted his past declarations of remorse. He died in Vienna in 1991.

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In 2007, 10 of 17 suspected former SS members were found guilty in absentia for their role in the Marzabotto Massacre by an Italian military tribunal in La Spezia.

The 10 defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment and were ordered to pay around €100 million to the survivors and relatives of the victims. Seven other defendants were acquitted.

Not one sentenced man would be arrested or extradited, according to the NS-Täter website, and none of the victims’ relatives have ever received any restitution.