Massacre in Vercelli, Italy
The massacre at the Vercelli Psychiatric Hospital was the summary execution - by partisans of the 182nd Garibaldi Brigade "Pietro Camana" - of a group of Italian Social Republic (RSI) militiamen taken from the Novara stadium, then used as a concentration camp. According to the various sources, the militiamen killed were between fifty-one and sixty-five. The massacre took place partly in the town of Vercelli and partly in the town of Greggio between May 12 and 13, 1945. The memory of the event was for decades handed down almost solely by veterans of the CSR: only in more recent years have some historians taken up the subject, which is now reconstructed sufficiently comprehensively in its general outlines, although differing in some details depending on the sources.
Sources.
The first historiographical treatment of the Vercelli massacre was provided by Domenico Roccia - a partisan and representative of the Action Party to the purge commission set up by the local CLN - who in his 1949 work "Il Giellismo Vercellese" published the names of the victims, as well as excerpts from the diary of a lieutenant of the Black Brigades "Bruno Ponzecchi" detained at the Novara Stadium.
Thereafter, for years, the subject was not covered by historians. Thus, news about the events remained reported in police, judicial and parliamentary sources, as well as in journalistic articles: some of them still dating back to the late 1940s, while others were written on the occasion of the various requests for authorization to proceed against the former partisan commanders accused of the massacre, who in the meantime had become deputies. They were also mentioned by the journalist and writer Giampaolo Pansa in his "La Resistenza in Piemonte: guida bibliografica 1943-1963" published in 1965, and the journalist-historian Giorgio Pisanò, a veteran of the RSI, in "Storia della guerra civile in Italia" of 1972.
In 1991, historian and ex-partisan Claudio Pavone wrote about it in his A Civil War. In 1996, the Institute for the History of the Resistance and Contemporary Society of Vercelli "Cino Moscatelli" sent to print the third volume of a work by Cesare Bermani on the history of the Garibaldi Brigades in Valsesia, within which what is called "the incident of Vercelli" was reconstructed.
Giampaolo Pansa in 2003 reported the episode in a few pages of his "Il sangue dei vinti", expressly citing as his sources the aforementioned Bermani and Pierangelo Pavesi, a journalist close to the reductive associations of the RSI who in 2002 had published the first edition of "La Colonna Morsero". The following year, journalist and writer Raffaello Uboldi wrote about the Vercelli massacre in the essay "25 aprile 1945. I giorni dell'odio e della libertà", calling the episode the "massacre of the Vercelli Psychiatric Hospital."
Historical context.
The war of liberation in the province of Vercelli.
In the province of Vercelli, the first partisan action in the liberation war was the attack launched on Dec. 2, 1943 against a garrison of blackshirts in Varallo, following which the fascists reported their first casualty in the area. On December 10, a second fascist was killed, engaged with his unit in repressing a strike in Tollegno. The next day, however, the commissioner of the Republican Fascist Party in Ponzone di Trivero, Bruno Ponzecchi, was killed by partisans. These partisan actions preceded and were accompanied by general strikes by workers in the Biellese and Valsesia areas.
On December 19, the Tagliamento Legion was flocked to Vercelli, which through the posting of notices threatened the shooting of ten hostages for every RSI soldier or German soldier killed. The threat was first implemented in Borgosesia on December 22, following the previous day's killing of two militiamen from the 63rd "M" Battalion. The Tagliamento was also guilty of massacres, fires and looting from its first days of activity in the province.
The partisan war in the Vercelli area was characterized by the presence of multiple partisan units in the area, which engaged not only in classic local guerrilla actions, but also in mountain and lowland open field combat operations, with some local successes alternating with defeats. In addition to this, the partisan forces attempted to liberate some areas of the province, coming to constitute real enclaves within the territory controlled by the republican fascists and the Germans: this is the case, for example, of the Republic of Valsesia and Valsessera, which were free between June and July 1944 and then - the latter - from March 1945. The last reprisal perpetrated by the fascists in the province took place on March 9, 1945 in Salussola with the shooting of twenty or twenty-one partisans, in response to a partisan ambush conducted on March 6 in the same locality and resulting in the death of four fascists.
The last month of the war in the Vercelli area.
By mid-April 1945, the Germans and fascists had in the Biella and Vercelli areas about 4,500 men, whom the partisans were opposing in the area militarily called "Biellese" - also including Vercelli and its environs - six Garibaldi brigades, a Giustizia e Libertà brigade, a police brigade and two SAP brigades. On April 18 in Biella there were a few isolated strike actions: despite a prompt reaction from the fascist authorities in the area - led by the head of the province Michele Morsero - the next day the strike became widespread, expanding also to the Mosso Valley and Valsessera - already a free zone since the previous March - where a massive popular demonstration took place, during which partisan commanders Francesco Moranino and Cino Moscatelli spoke. The abstention from work lasted until April 20, eventually slowly resuming.
Meanwhile, on April 19, Germans and fascists had unleashed a final offensive against the partisan formations, with the aim of opening an escape route and blocking preparations for insurrection. The concentric attack, from Biella and Ivrea, involved the 75th "Maffei" Brigade, the 76th and 183rd Brigades of the 7th Garibaldi "Aosta" Division and a unit of the 182nd "Camana" Brigade. After fierce clashes, at dawn on April 24, the Germans left Biella, paralyzed by the insurrectionary strike, while the fascists remained in the city until, following lengthy negotiations with the partisan command, they were allowed to leave: a fascist column composed of the "Pontida" and "Montebello" battalions of the National Republican Guard and some units of the Black Brigades then moved in the direction of Vercelli between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. On April 25, Biella paid tribute to the partisans in the liberated city.
The partisan forces then decided to converge on Vercelli, passing mainly through the localities of Cavaglià and Santhià (liberated on the evening of the 25th): the first sporadic clashes on the outskirts of the capital took place that same evening. Meanwhile, in Vercelli were concentrated from various localities in the area, in addition to a garrison of 500 Germans, the remaining forces of the RSI: various divisions of the Black Brigades, soldiers of the "Monterosa" and "Littorio" divisions, grenadiers, militiamen of the "Muti" Legion and the Republican National Guard, as well as various survivors of various garrisons, for a total of about 2,500 men. Along with them, some had their own families.
On the morning of the 26th, negotiations took place between the partisan commands and Morsero: the latter proposed not to fight in the city, but the proposal was rejected to the sender with an "ultimatum": capitulation of the fascists or departure from Vercelli by 3 p.m. In the afternoon, the Fascist column - comprising some 2,000 soldiers and 200 women as well as children - left the city. Also on the afternoon of the 26th, the German garrison in Vercelli surrendered: the city was liberated. Attacked repeatedly by partisans, the column stopped near the town of Castellazzo Novarese, surrendering on the morning of April 28.
The massacre of Santhià.
The province of Vercelli was later traversed by another strong column, consisting of German units retreating from Liguria, Turin and the Aosta Valley, which on April 28 occupied the towns of Cigliano and Tronzano Vercellese: on the 29th it reached Borgo d'Ale, Cavaglià and Salussola, later entering Santhià in the evening. Between April 29 and 30, the Germans attacked some farmsteads occupied by partisans, at the same time committing a series of atrocities against civilians. At the end of the fighting there were forty-eight dead: twenty-one partisans and twenty-seven civilians. The subsequent attack by the Allied air force against the German forces prompted the commander of the column, General Hans Schlemmer, to accept the proposed surrender into the hands of the Allies. The Santhià massacre is considered by some to be the trigger for the subsequent Vercelli massacre.
German surrender.
The Allies arrived in Vercelli on May 2. On the same day the German surrender in the area was signed, effective at 00:00 on May 3. The signer of the surrender document was Colonel Hans-Georg Faulmüller, chief of staff of the German 75th Army Corps. For the Allies, Captain Patrick Amoore of the Allied mission to the partisan command in the area and U.S. Colonel John Breit were present. For the partisans, present were: Felice Mautino "Monti," Domenico Bricarello "Walter" and Primo Corbelletti "Timo," representing the Ivrea, Biella and Aosta commands; for the Ivrea CLN, engineer Giulio Borello. According to a May 4 report, 61,000 Germans and 12,000 fascists had surrendered.
The "Morsero Column".
Establishment.
Between April 23 and 26, 1945, the armed forces of the Italian Social Republic still in arms flocked to Vercelli from the various garrisons of the province, placing themselves under the command of provincial chief Michele Morsero. They were also joined by the "Pontida" assault battalion of the National Republican Guard (GNR) that arrived from Biella. The militiamen were also joined by civilians with their families, forming the so-called "Morsero Column" consisting of more than 2,000 people. The intention was to reach Novara and then head for the Valtellina redoubt.
The column consisted of the remnants of the following units:
The column set out around 3 p.m. on April 26, 1945, under the command of Morsero and GNR Colonel Fracassi. As it left the city, it was subjected to heavy rifle fire near the bridge over the Sesia River, which was answered in a disorderly manner. For the rest of the day the column moved smoothly in the direction of Novara to Biandrate, where it was engaged in a new exchange of rifle fire with partisans. Early in the morning, after spending the night on the march, the column reached Castellazzo Novarese.
The surrender.
The column arrived in Castellazzo Novarese on the morning of April 27 and was quartered there in the local castle, which the partisans of the 82nd "Osella" Brigade surrounded and attacked several times, losing two men in the fighting. It was then decided to send some officers to meet with the partisans to discuss a free transit to Oleggio, where the Ticino would be crossed. Negotiations were set to begin at 12 p.m. Having established a truce at the suggestion of lawyer Leoni, frantic negotiations were then begun in the course of which the partisans demanded the surrender of the column.
In order to evaluate the partisan demand, at 4:00 p.m. the commands of the column convened a council of war, which met in the "Sala della Consulta" at the town hall, in which in addition to Prefect Morsero all the highest ranking officers participated. The partisan delegates were admitted to the council hall and proposed to escort a delegation of republican officers to Novara, so that they would verify the surrender of the city garrison and meet with representatives of the National Liberation Committee. They then went to Novara Captain Angelo Nessi (of the "Ruggine") and Captain Paolo Pasqualini (of the "Pontida"), who, having returned to Castellazzo Novarese, communicated the proposals of the CLN: surrender with the honor of arms, the right for officers to keep their service weapon, and safe-conducts for the troops authorizing their return to their families or to the desired location.
Morsero and Colonel Fracassi finally decided to accept the surrender conditions, challenged, however, by the officers, who did not trust the partisans and were convinced they could hold out until the Allies arrived. The same surrender conditions were accepted in the same hours by a nearby German garrison. On the following day, April 28, the surrender of the column to partisan forces and the handing over of weapons, many of which were previously rendered unserviceable,