A picture of 45 civilians in Verbania. They were shot on the same day, 20 June 1944, by SS-Polizei soldiers.
A picture of 45 civilians in Verbania. They were shot on the same day, 20 June 1944, by SS police soldiers. Casa della Resistenza Fondotoce / Ester Bucchi

War crimes on Switzerland’s doorstep

The Ossola region at Switzerland’s southern border experienced escalating violence between 1943 and 1945. Many war crimes were committed resulting in hundreds of casualties. A look back at what caused this horror.

Raphael Rues

Raphael Rues

Raphael Rues is a historian and specialises in Ticino and the German-fascist presence in Northern Italy.

The spiralling violence that took place around the border between the Ossola Valley and the cantons of Valais and Ticino between 1943 and 1945 was the culmination of the emergence of fascism in Italy. The march on Rome at the end of October 1922 and the ensuing nomination of Benito Mussolini as Prime Minister by King Viktor Emanuel III triggered a cycle of violence. At its core was the total repression of social-democratic and moderate political circles. Those who were imprisoned were the lucky ones, many were exiled to France and Switzerland.
King Viktor Emanuel III (centre) and Benito Mussolini (right) in Rome in 1923.
King Viktor Emanuel III (centre) and Benito Mussolini (right) in Rome in 1923. Wikimedia
Everything changed in the region when Benito Mussolini was deposed on 25 July 1943 by the Ordine Grandi motion issued by senator Dino Grandi. Incidentally, it was also Dino Grandi who accompanied Mussolini on his last visit to Switzerland to attend the final part of the Locarno peace conference in the old port of Brissago in November 1925. He was a young deputy at the time who was involved in foreign affairs. The deposition of Mussolini and the fascists in the summer of 1943 near the Swiss border barely caused a ripple. There were no violent incidents or confrontations with the fascists. However, that changed on 8 September 1943 with the announcement of a ceasefire by General Pietro Badoglio’s military government. This poorly planned ceasefire led to total chaos. About 600,000 soldiers from the Italian army were arrested in the space of a few weeks and the Germans, who considered the ceasefire high treason, immediately deported them to the Reich.
Signing the ceasefire in 1943 in Cassibile, Sicily.
Signing the ceasefire in 1943 in Cassibile, Sicily. Wikimedia
The situation then changed abruptly, including at the Swiss border. Reprisals and war crimes were committed. First in the firing line were the wealthy Jewish families who had fled to the shores of Lake Maggiore. The first German unit to commit war crimes in the area was a battalion from the SS Leibstandarte Adolf Hitler panzer division. Operationally the unit was brought to the region between Arona-Meina-Intra to regroup. The battalion had incurred heavy losses on the eastern front in the Kharkiv region (now in Ukraine) during the well-known Operation Citadel. Some officers in the battalion, including Sepp Dietrich, an erstwhile companion of Adolf Hitler, quickly realised that the Jews at Lake Maggiore had a lot of money and went straight into action, killing at least 57 Jews within a few weeks. The bodies were burned in schoolyards (Intra) or thrown into Lake Maggiore. However, this unit’s behaviour soon became common knowledge and the battalion was sent back to the eastern front where the situation was deteriorating.
Sepp Dietrich (third from right) at the eastern front in 1943.
Sepp Dietrich (third from right) at the eastern front in 1943. Wikimedia
After the Germans pulled out, attacks by partisans in the Ossola region increased quickly. Between November 1943 and April 1945, the situation in the region was akin to civil war, claiming many victims. The Germans initially occupied the region with the old custom border guards ‘Zollgrenzschutztruppe’. However, they quickly realised that a better armed unit was needed to take on the partisans. Hence the deployment for the first time of the SS police in January 1944. They were no strangers to savagery having already killed civilians, Jews and, to a lesser extent, Soviet partisans on the eastern front. On 11 February 1944, the SS police conducted their first major raid against partisan captain Filippo Beltrami in Megolo (Toce valley). Throughout the spring of 1944 there were several operations against partisans, which always followed the same pattern: killing partisans and rounding up defenceless people and sending the mainly male civilians to the Reich. Even young civilians from the age of 15 were sent to labour camps in Germany.
Partisan leader Filippo Beltrami, taken before 1944.
Partisan leader Filippo Beltrami, taken before 1944. Wikimedia
In June 1944, the violence spiralled further in the Ossola region with the liberation of Rome and Allied landing in Normandy. To the north of Intra, in Val Grande, 200 partisans and civilians were killed between 10 and 22 June. The perpetrators of these crimes were mainly SS police. No-one was ever convicted for these crimes. Italian investigations by the military prosecutor’s office were immediately put on ice after the war and subsequently lost in the Palazzo Cesi-Gaddi war crimes archive. Economic ties between Italy and Germany were presumably too big to jeopardise. The Germans continued to commit crimes in August. Villages were burned down, people executed in retaliation and even old people were deported to labour camps in Germany.

The Ossola Republic

The founding of the Partisan Republic of Ossola in September 1944 brought a brief spell of freedom for 80,000 people and 32 communes. The partisans managed to free the area from Simplon almost as far as Lake Maggiore for 40 days and form a government. One of the first democratic acts in fascist Italy. 300 fascists were imprisoned in Druogno (Vigezzo Valley), but none were killed. However, the republic was short-lived. On 10 October 1944, the Germans began to reclaim the Free Zone of Ossola. The partisans were attacked on two sides and lost 200 men within a few days and about 400 were deported to Germany. The Germans, supported by Italian fascists, were brutal and didn’t stop at the Swiss border. There were some controversial incidents. For example in Bagni di Craveggia, on the border with the Onsernone Valley, two partisans who were already on Swiss soil were fatally wounded by fascists.
Partisans who had fled from Ossola arrive in Spruga on 19 October 1944.
Partisans who had fled from Ossola arrive in Spruga on 19 October 1944. Archive Tullio Bernasconi
The repression by the occupying forces increased massively after the Partisan Republic of Ossola ended. Retaliatory acts like the one in the locality of Trarego, where nine partisans were executed in February 1945 were not unusual. Most of these acts were committed by the Black Brigades, an extreme paramilitary organisation of the Italian Social Republic. No-one was spared, whether women, civilians or even priests like Giuseppe Rossi from the remote village of Calasca Castiglione. The Germans behaved differently. They had long since realised the end was coming and tended to stay enclosed in their garrisons in the last months of the war.
Alessandro Pavolini (centre), founder of the Black Brigades, at an inspection in Milan in 1944.
Alessandro Pavolini (centre), founder of the Black Brigades, at an inspection in Milan in 1944. Wikimedia
It wasn’t just the occupying forces that committed war crimes in this “civil war” in the Ossola region. The partisans also played their part. For example, against fascist military units or civilians. In July 1944, partisans attacked a train going to Domodossola. They killed 17 young men who were not involved in the conflict. Towards the end of the Second World War, the number of revenge attacks against members of the Black Brigades also increased. The Ossola-Lake Maggiore regional conflict lasted about 20 months and took a tragic toll: 1,200 dead partisans, 300 murdered civilians and at least 400 deported people. 300 of them returned after the end of the Second World War, usually in very poor physical and mental health. The fascists incurred about 400 casualties. Most of them died towards the end of the Second World War in retaliatory attacks. The number of Germans killed in Ossola is very low according to various archives, amounting to a maximum of 100 soldiers. The Germans never paid any financial compensation. There were two trials involving Hitler’s bodyguard units Leibstandarte in Germany and Austria, which ended in acquittals for the accused officers and soldiers.

Published on: 23.07.2024

Modified on: 28.08.2024

URL: https://blog.nationalmuseum.ch/en/2024/07/war-crimes-ossola/

More of: 20th / 21st centuryWar/battleArticleOssola

Further posts

Ossola’s partisans in Swiss internment camps

Raphael Rues 17.10.2024 In 1944, many partisans from the Ossola region fled to Switzerland, where they were detained in remote internment camps.
Fugitive partisans from the Ossola region arriving in Bern in autumn 1944. They were then sent to various internment camps.

A story of resistance and escape

Raphael Rues 23.01.2024 During the Second World War, numerous people attempted to flee persecution across the Italian-Swiss border into Ticino. This included Egone Gruenberger, who only managed to escape to freedom on his second attempt and after a long ordeal.
The Valmara – Madonna di Ponte customs office around 1940.

The Ossola Republic

Andrej Abplanalp 10.09.2017 In autumn 1944, partisan groups liberated a sizeable territory around Domodossola from the Nazis and founded their own republic. But the resistance fighters were at odds with one another and after just over a month the dream of an independent state came to an end. The story of a tragedy on the border with Switzerland.
Im Oktober 1944 kam es im Val Formazza nahe der Schweizer Grenze zu einem Kampf zwischen den sich zurückziehenden Partisanen und den deutschen und faschistischen Truppen. Einige Widerstandskämpfer konnten in die Schweiz flüchten.