Armadio della vergogna
Encyclopedia
The armoire of shame is a wooden cabinet discovered in 1994 inside a large storage room in Palazzo Cesi-Gaddi, Rome which, at the time, housed the chancellery of the military attorney's office. The cabinet contained an archive of 695 files documenting war crime
s perpetrated on Italian soil under fascist
rule and during Nazi occupation after the September 8, 1943 armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces. The actions described in the records spanned several years and took place in various areas of the country, from the southern city of Acerra
to the northern province of Trieste
and as far east as the Balkans
; it remains unclear, to this day, how the archive remained concealed for so long, and who gave the order to hide the files in the immediate post-war period.
, accidentally uncovered the content of the wooden cabinet, which had remained stored for decades, face to the wall, in an unused room in Palazzo Cesi. Its contents had seemingly been placed in the armoire temporarily, probably in the immediate post-war months, and forgotten or (perhaps purposely) overlooked.
The armoire contained the memorandum titled Atrocities in Italy, stamped "secret", which had been compiled by the British
Secret Intelligence Service
, whose officers had documented the victims' accusations and painstakingly collected depositions, and consigned it to the Italian magistrates, who failed to prosecute the individuals mentioned in the files, limiting publication of details and accusations to the cases against unnamed Nazi and fascist officers.
Among the previously unknown war crimes which were then brought to justice are noteworthy:
War crime
War crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
s perpetrated on Italian soil under fascist
Italian Fascism
Italian Fascism also known as Fascism with a capital "F" refers to the original fascist ideology in Italy. This ideology is associated with the National Fascist Party which under Benito Mussolini ruled the Kingdom of Italy from 1922 until 1943, the Republican Fascist Party which ruled the Italian...
rule and during Nazi occupation after the September 8, 1943 armistice between Italy and Allied armed forces. The actions described in the records spanned several years and took place in various areas of the country, from the southern city of Acerra
Acerra
Acerra is a town and comune of Campania, southern Italy, in the Province of Naples, about 20 km northeast of the provincial capital in Naples. It is part of the Agro Acerrano plain.-History:...
to the northern province of Trieste
Trieste
Trieste is a city and seaport in northeastern Italy. It is situated towards the end of a narrow strip of land lying between the Adriatic Sea and Italy's border with Slovenia, which lies almost immediately south and east of the city...
and as far east as the Balkans
Balkans
The Balkans is a geopolitical and cultural region of southeastern Europe...
; it remains unclear, to this day, how the archive remained concealed for so long, and who gave the order to hide the files in the immediate post-war period.
Discovery
In 1994, military prosecutor Antonino Intelisano, who was at the time in charge of the trial against former SS officer Erich PriebkeErich Priebke
Erich Priebke is a former Hauptsturmführer in the Waffen SS. In 1996 he was convicted of war crimes in Italy, for participating in the massacre at the Ardeatine caves in Rome, on March 24, 1944...
, accidentally uncovered the content of the wooden cabinet, which had remained stored for decades, face to the wall, in an unused room in Palazzo Cesi. Its contents had seemingly been placed in the armoire temporarily, probably in the immediate post-war months, and forgotten or (perhaps purposely) overlooked.
The armoire contained the memorandum titled Atrocities in Italy, stamped "secret", which had been compiled by the British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Secret Intelligence Service
Secret Intelligence Service
The Secret Intelligence Service is responsible for supplying the British Government with foreign intelligence. Alongside the internal Security Service , the Government Communications Headquarters and the Defence Intelligence , it operates under the formal direction of the Joint Intelligence...
, whose officers had documented the victims' accusations and painstakingly collected depositions, and consigned it to the Italian magistrates, who failed to prosecute the individuals mentioned in the files, limiting publication of details and accusations to the cases against unnamed Nazi and fascist officers.
Among the previously unknown war crimes which were then brought to justice are noteworthy:
- the Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacreSant'Anna di Stazzema massacreThe Sant'Anna di Stazzema massacre was a Nazi German atrocity in the village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, Italy, in the course of an operation against the Italian resistance movement in 1944, during the Italian Campaign of World War II.-Facts:...
- the Ardeatine massacreArdeatine massacreThe Fosse Ardeatine massacre was a mass execution carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World War as a reprisal for a partisan attack conducted on the previous day in central Rome....
- the Marzabotto massacreMarzabotto massacreThe Marzabotto massacre was a World War II mass murder of at least 770 civilians by Germans, which took place in the territory around the small village of Marzabotto, in the mountainous area south of Bologna...
- the massacre at the Korica concentration camp
- the Lero massacre
- the Coo massacre
- the SplitSplit (city)Split is a Mediterranean city on the eastern shores of the Adriatic Sea, centered around the ancient Roman Palace of the Emperor Diocletian and its wide port bay. With a population of 178,192 citizens, and a metropolitan area numbering up to 467,899, Split is by far the largest Dalmatian city and...
massacre - the massacre at the Duomo in San MiniatoSan MiniatoSan Miniato is a town and comune in the province of Pisa, in the region of Tuscany, Italy.San Miniato sits at an historically strategic location atop three small hills where it dominates the lower Arno valley between the valleys of Egola and Elsa...
- the KarpathosKarpathosKarpathos is the second largest of the Greek Dodecanese islands, in the southeastern Aegean Sea. Together with the neighboring smaller Saria Island it forms the municipality Karpathos, which is part of the Karpathos peripheral unit. From its remote position Karpathos has preserved many...
massacre - the massacre of the Acqui DivisionMassacre of the Acqui DivisionThe Massacre of the Acqui Division , also known as the Cephalonia Massacre , was the mass execution of the men of the Italian 33rd Acqui Infantry Division by the Germans on the island of Kefalonia, Greece, in September 1943, following the Italian armistice during the Second World War. About 5000...
- the atrocities committed by Michael SeifertMichael Seifert (SS guard)Michael Seifert was an SS guard in Italy during World War II.He was an ethnic German born in Landau...
at the Bolzano Transit CampBolzano Transit CampThe Bolzano transit camp was a Nazi concentration camp active in Bolzano between 1944 and the end of the Second World War. It was one of the largest Nazi Lager on Italian soil, along with those of Fossoli, Borgo San Dalmazzo and Trieste.-History:...
External links
- PDF publication of the original documents found in the armoire, in Italian.
- L'armadio della vergogna, history of the discovery of the armoire and ample discussion of each file therein, in Italian.
- “Le stragi nascoste”, spalancato l’armadio della vergogna ("Hidden massacres", opened the doors to the armoire of shame), review of the book by Franzinelli, in Italian.
- Stragi nazi fasciste, per la prima volta la verità su colpevoli e insabbiamenti (Nazi-fascit massacres, for the first time the truth about culprits and pigeon-holing), "L'Espresso", September 11, 2001, in Italian.