On 17 October 2025, the Bologna Court of Appeal confirmed a first-instance ruling condemning Germany to pay compensation to the families of the victims of the Marzabotto massacre, which occurred in the autumn of 1944 by the Nazi SS, in which 760 Italians were killed. The overall amount of compensation for the families involved is approximately 50 million euros.
The sentence states that the massacres were part of a criminal plan conceived at the top of the Third Reich and represent war crimes and crimes against humanity, according to the Nuremberg Statute. The Statute established jurisdiction, legal principles, categories of crimes and trial procedures for Nazi leaders after World War II.
The history of the Monte Sole massacre and the role of the Nazis
The Marzabotto massacre is considered by historians to be the most brutal massacre carried out by the Nazi SS in Europe during the Second World War. The massacre took place in the area of the Bolognese Apennines around Monte Sole, specifically in the territories of Marzabotto, Grizzana Morandi and Monzuno. In August-September 1944, after the occupation of Florence by the Allies, control of this area became of vital importance for the Germans for holding the front.
In this context, with the Allies nearby, the Germans considered the partisan presence even more dangerous and therefore launched a vast operation against the Red Star, the local resistance formation. Starting from Monte Sole, in fact, where they had their main base, the partisans were able to strike the roads and railways of the area on a daily basis: this presence pushed the German command to plan to attack the area, also to encourage the army’s retreat towards the north.
In August-September this task was entrusted to Major Walther Reder: his division had already been used against the partisans in Istria, where it had carried out several bloody raids, and in the summer of 1944 it had been guilty of horrendous massacres in Tuscany. With these bloody premises, on 29 September 1944 Reder launched the operation: the partisans clashed with the Germans at various points, trying to reach Monte Sole and Monte Caprara, but the situation became unsustainable for the Resistance. The witnesses also recalled the presence of Italians alongside the Germans, with serious responsibilities of local fascism. Faced with the violent attack, the Red Star was forced to dissolve, but this did not prevent the Germans from continuing their annihilation.
In those days many families of residents and displaced people had sought refuge in the mountains, believing these areas, inaccessible and within the partisan zone, safer to defend themselves from bombings and raids. However, precisely in this area the Nazi division decided to also attack the civilian population: evidence of an effective relationship with the partisans was not considered as a discriminating element for the killing, causing a barbaric massacre. On October 5, when the SS retreated, they left behind hundreds of dead (mostly women, elderly people and children) and entire villages destroyed.
The consequences of the 1944 massacre: responsibility and culprits
Historiography and jurisprudence have underlined the role of the department led by Walther Reder in attributing responsibility for the massacre and in the timing of its implementation. Not unlike what happened in other conflict zones during the Second World War, the Monte Sole massacres fall within the logic of the Nazi war, a conflict of extermination that aims to ruthlessly eliminate the enemy and ends up including the entire population. For a long time it was not possible to venture official numbers on this massacre of innocents, but estimates tend to agree on a figure between 1,600 and 1,800 victims.
Throughout the following winter, German troops and the Allies faced each other close to the area affected by the massacre. In April 1945 a massive bombing on Monte Sole allowed the Allies to take the area: on 19 April Marzabotto was liberated. Reder was captured on May 5 by the British in Salzburg, Austria, and was handed over to Italy. The trial against him began on 18 September 1951 before the Military Tribunal of Bologna and ended with a life sentence.
The Monte Sole massacre marked a central phase of the fight against the partisans close to the Gothic Line, the last major defensive line built by the Nazis in central-northern Italy. Before this massacre in autumn 1944, however, other indiscriminate massacres of civilians had already occurred and studies have highlighted dozens of massacres spread across the entire Italian territory occupied by the Nazis. “The Marzabotto massacre is one of many crimes committed by the SS and the Wehrmacht in Italy. Crimes which, as we know, have left deep wounds in the country,” German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said last year.
