Ardeatine massacre

The Ardeatine massacre, or Fosse Ardeatine massacre (Eccidio delle Fosse Ardeatine), was a mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World War as a reprisal for the Via Rasella attack in central Rome against the SS Police Regiment Bozen the previous day. Subsequently, the Ardeatine Caves site (Fosse Ardeatine) was declared a Memorial Cemetery and National Monument open daily to visitors. Every year, on the anniversary of the slaughter and in the presence of the senior officials of the Italian Republic, a solemn state commemoration is held at the monument in honour of the fallen. Each year, 335 names are called out, a simple roll call of the dead, to reinforce that 335 discrete individuals symbolise a collective entity. Fall of the Fascist regime in Italy In July 1943, the Allies landed on the island of Sicily, preparing to invade the mainland, and Rome was bombed for the first time. On 24 July 1943, the Fascist Grand Council, which the dictator Benito Mussolini had not convened since 1939, met and overwhelmingly voted no confidence in Mussolini. The following day, anxious to extricate his country from an unsustainable war, King Victor Emanuel III, the titular head of the Italian state and Commander-in-Chief of the armed forces under Mussolini, appointed Marshal Pietro Badoglio to head a new military government. He then ordered his gendarmerie, the Carabinieri, to arrest and imprison Mussolini. On 13 August 1943, Rome was bombed again, and the Badoglio government began secret surrender negotiations with the Allies in Sicily, although still outwardly allied to Nazi Germany. In accordance with the Pope's wishes, Badoglio also unilaterally declared Rome an open city, i.e., a demilitarized zone, a declaration the Allies would refuse to recognise and the Germans to respect. The Germans, anticipating an Italian defection, meanwhile began moving more and more troops into Italy (Operation Achse).