September 28, 1944
About twenty kilometers south of Bologna is the massif of Monte Sole,
a triangle of hills, between the two valleys of the river Setta and of
the river Reno It is part of the Apennini range. Around this area are
dozens of small villages and towns, Marzabotto, Sperticano, Cerpiano,
San Martino, Creda and Casaglia to just name a few. Starting on September
28,1944 the area around and on Monte Sole was the central location of
an extermination carried out by the German SS with the support of local
Italian fascists as part of their retaliation for partisan attacks on
the Germans. During this event approxiately 770 people, the majority women
and children, were killed; their bodies and the houses they lived in were
in many cases destroyed and burnt. Because of the ongoing war, the bodies
on top of Monte Sole were not discovered until April 1945 with many of
the bodies found in the graveyard located there. Monte Sole is now an
Italian Historical Park.
To view slide show from Monte Sole Click Here.
Other war memorials include the American War Memorial Cemetery just south of Florence, the Commonwealth has a War Memorial Cemetery along the banks of the Arno west of Florence and the Germans have a War Memorial Cemetery in Futa Pass, north of Florence.
For more information about this cemetery click on the this link to the Association Terra, Memoria e Pace (Land, Memory and Peace).