World War II partisan deaths in Italy
The Massacre of Salussola consists in the execution, preceded by torture, of 20 Italian Partisans, committed in retaliation by Italian Fascist soldiers on March 9, 1945, in the town of Salussola (Italy).
The facts.
In late February 1945, the 109th Garibaldi Brigade, was moving across Piedmont (N.W. Italy) which at the time was occupied by German troops and held by the Italian Black Brigades During the march, a detachment of "Zoppis" made up of 33 partisans, stopped to rest in a farmhouse in the Province of Vercelli.
In the early hours of March 1, they were taken by surprise and taken prisoner by a Command of Italian Fascist soldiers. The thirty-three men were all taken to different places and a group of twenty-one was led towards the small town of Biella. The Fascista soldier then pretended to create an exchange with German prisoners. but in Salussola, after a whole night of torture and violences documented by the only one survivor, the prisoners were killed by machine guns at dawn on March 9, 1945. The massacre was intended as a reprisal to an attack conducted a few days earlier by other Partisans to a column of military trucks of the "Montebello"’s Fascist Command, which were moving through Salussola. A truck was destroyed in the attack and four soldiers killed.
The victims.
Note: "Alias" ("noms de guerre") were a very important part in the life of the Partisans. Mainly used to conceal the true identity (it was a clandestine army) the Alias name outlined also in most cases the character and the personality of the owners. It thus enabled at the same time to hide oneself outside, and to be recognized inside among the other Partisans for a personal, moral or physical characteristic.