Family compensated for wartime Nazi atrocity

Italy has paid compensation to the relatives of a man who died 80 years ago in a World War II Nazi atrocity.

The 800,000-euro ($840,000) settlement was the first the Italian government has ever made for a Nazi war crime, the Reuters news agency reported, and was in acknowledgement of the illegal slaying of Metello Ricciarini, a stonemason, who was killed along with 243 other civilians in 1944, in the central Italian region of Tuscany.

The mass execution was carried out by German soldiers occupying Italy at the time, in revenge for the killing of two Germans who died earlier in a battle with Italian anti-fascist forces.

Lawyer Roberto Alboni, Ricciarini's nephew, who acted on behalf of his wider family and who won the settlement after almost two decades of lobbying, told Reuters: "I express my satisfaction, of my mother Metella, and of my relatives, who received the money from the economy ministry last week."

Groups acting on behalf of other victims are hoping the compensation award will open the door to other historic cases being settled from the World War II era, when Italy's fascist government was a close ally of Nazi Germany.

In 1962, in recognition of the harm Nazi Germany caused Italy and its people during World War II, the German government made a one-off payment to Italy of the equivalent of 1 billion euros in today's money.

A condition attached to that payment called for Germany to no longer be held liable for the compensation claims of individuals, and for them to instead be handled by the Italian government.

However, years of legal wrangling followed before Italy finally established a fund in 2022, worth 61 million euros, to cover such compensation payments.

Dario Parrini, a senator from the opposition center-left Democratic Party who is also vice-president of the Constitutional Affairs Committee, said he is hopeful the fact that the fund has finally been put to use means many more claims will now be settled.

"This is an important first result in the battle to raise awareness about reparations for the heirs of victims of Nazi-fascist crimes," he said.

Italy's ANSA news agency quoted him as saying that many families are, however, still coming up against problems securing agreements with the government.

"This good news does not let us lower our guard on the commitment to ensuring that the rights of the victims' heirs are fully satisfied," he said. "Many problems remain. There are rulings similar to the Ricciarini one, as well as more recent ones, which the economy ministry has not yet honored."

The German government said in 2016 it believes around 22,000 Italians were the victims of Nazi war crimes, including around 8,000 Jewish Italians who were deported to death camps.

Alboni told the Italian newspaper The Nation that the massacre of 244 unarmed civilians in the village of Civitella in Val di Chiana, in the province of Arezzo, on June 29, 1944, which was marked by President Sergio Mattarella on its 80th anniversary, is one of several prominent atrocities committed by Nazi Germany that should be acknowledged and compensated.

The village of Civitella in Val di Chiana today includes a shrine to the victims of the massacre that was committed by members of the Hermann Goring Division of the German army.

In 2006, the Italian military court of La Spezia convicted in absentia former soldier Max Josef Milde of participating in the massacre.

earle@mail.chinadailyuk.com