1944: A day in mass executions in Axis Europe
June 29th, 2013 Headsman
June 29, 1944, saw several noteworthy mass executions around Axis western Europe.
France: Seven Jewish hostages for the assassination of Philippe Henriot
Poet and journalist Philippe Henriot (English Wikipedia entry | French), the “French Goebbels”, was the Vichy government’s able chief propagandist.
On June 28, 1944, Henriot was assassinated by Maquis operatives disguised as milice paramlitaries.
Incensed, the real milice this morning gathered seven Jews already held in prison as hostages at Rillieux, drove them to the cemetery, and shot them one by one.
(Paul Touvier, who orchestrated this retaliatory execution, managed to stay underground until 1989. At his 1994 war crimes trial, he claimed that the Germans wanted 30 hostages killed, and therefore what he actually did was “save 23 human lives.” Touvier was convicted on the charge of crimes against humanity.)
Italy: Massacres in San Pancrazio, Cornia, and Civitella
As dawn broke this date, German soldiers retreating from liberated Rome fell upon several Tuscan villages.
German columns had been beset by partisans on the way, and standard operating procedure was to retaliate against partisans indirectly, by killing civilians — as in the notorious massacre in the Ardeatine caves. This vengeance was visited on the three towns: over 200 civilians were summarily executed on June 29, 1944.
“My mother later said she went to speak to my father,” remembered one San Pancrazio man. “A soldier turned her back and told her they were taking him to be tortured. She and my father both cried.” The father and those taken with him were shot in the basement of a farmhouse.
Caution: Graphic video.
The towns themselves have kept this date in remembrance, but the massacres were swept under the rug in the postwar settlement as Italy, Germany, and their former western enemies realigned for the Cold War. Only in the 21st century have they come to wider attention, when the discovery of secret archives documenting the atrocities enabled an Italian court to convict an aged German soldier in absentia.
There’s a CNN documentary on these events focusing particularly on San Pancrazio. Called “Terror in Tuscany”, it may be viewable here or here, depending on your location.
Denmark: The Hvidsten Group
The Danish resistance group named for a Jutland tavern was betrayed by a captured Brit under torture.
S. P. KRISTENSEN * 20. 8. 1887
ALBERT IVERSEN * 28. 9. 1896
NIELS N. KJÆR * 2. 4. 1903
JOH KJÆR HANSEN * 2. 4. 1907
HENNING ANDERSEN * 16. 7. 1917
MARIUS FIIL * 21. 6. 1893
PETER SØRENSEN * 8. 6. 1919
NIELS FIIL * 12. 6. 19201944 on the 29 June
They fell before German bullets
Precious is their memory to Denmark
Hvidsten Group stone photo is a (cc) image from Hansjorn.
On this day..
- 1938: Shlomo Ben-Yosef, Mandatory Palestine Zionist protomartyr - 2020
- 1955: Gerhard Benkowitz and Hans-Dietrich Kogel, of the KgU - 2018
- 1996: The Abu Salim prison massacre - 2017
- 1726: Joseph Quasson - 2016
- 1900: Benjamin Snell, electricity in his head - 2015
- 1612: Robert Crichton, Lord Sanquhar and mediocre swordsman - 2014
- 1799: Admiral Francesco Caracciolo, Neapolitan - 2012
- 1925: Sheikh Said Piran, Kurdish rebel - 2011
- 1541: Thomas Fiennes, 9th Baron Dacre - 2010
- Feast Day of Saint Peter and Saint Paul - 2009
- 2000: Two kidnappers, televised by Guatemala - 2008
Entry Filed under: 20th Century,Businessmen,Capital Punishment,Death Penalty,Denmark,Disfavored Minorities,Execution,France,Germany,Guerrillas,History,Hostages,Innocent Bystanders,Italy,Jews,Mature Content,No Formal Charge,Occupation and Colonialism,Power,Shot,Soldiers,Summary Executions,Torture,Wartime Executions
Tags: 1940s, 1944, day in the death penalty, hvidsten group, june 29, philippe henriot, world war ii
