Eugenio Calò
Eugenio Calò | |
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Eugenio Calò (July 2, 1906 – July 14, 1944) was an Italian Jewish resistance fighter during World War II. Born in
German occupation
After the
Two months later, Calò and his fellow partisans captured a group of some thirty German soldiers. Acting on his
General
San Polo massacre
After September 8, 1943, the German invasion army was ordered by the highest authorities not to obey the
As per these commands, all the men of San Polo were gathered and brought to Villa Mancini where the German officers were quartered. There, the partisans were brutally beaten with rubber hoses and tortured. Eugenio Calò and Angelo Recapito, who both had information pertaining to the Allied forces' military plans, maintained their silence. At the end of the day, the partisans, wounded and barely alive, along with the captured men of the village — forty-eight in all — were taken to a nearby field on the backyard of Villa Gigliosi that the German soldiers had requisitioned. The civilians were made to dig three pit graves and were then thrown in still alive. The partisans were placed in the pits with their heads above ground and with explosive charges attached to their bodies.[citation needed] They were then blown apart. The Germans did not allow anyone to bury the dead.
Gold medal for military valour
Calò had spared the lives of some thirty captured German soldiers and insisted on acting in a humane way, even though his own family (his wife Carolina
For his military activities against the Germans as a member of the Italian resistance movement, for his contribution as second in command of the Pio Borri partisan division that patrolled the Casentino mountains in Tuscany, for his bravery, and for his humanity, Eugenio Calò was awarded in 1947 the highest honor for military heroism in Italy, the "Gold Medal for Military Valour".
Remembering Eugenio Calò
The San Polo massacre is commemorated every year, as is the liberation of Arezzo on July 16, 1944. The local religious, civilian and military authorities participate in the ceremony.
There are streets in
The county of Reggello named the Cascia square in memory of Carolina Lombroso Calò, In May 2016 a plaque commemorating her memory and her deportation and murder in Auschwitz with her children, was set in the square.
San Polo trials
Former NSDAP member Herbert Handsk, who took part in the San Polo massacre, was released from prison in 2007 by the Italian justice. Aged 87, he was the only survivor of the perpetrators of the massacre. Klaus Konrad had died on August 15, 2006. He had also been indicted by the magistrates in the same trial. Konrad, who became after the war a deputy of the Bundestag from 1969 to 1980 as a member of Willy Brandt's SPD, had already been indicted by the Italian justice in 1967 and 1972, but the complaints had been classified.[2]
Footnotes
- ^ admin (18 May 2016). "LUNEDI' 23 MAGGIO, INTITOLAZIONE DELLA PIAZZA "CAROLINA LOMBROSO CALO'"". Comune di Reggello (in Italian). Retrieved 24 January 2023.
- ^ AGI, La strage nazista di San Polo - il tribunale militare di la spezia assolve Handsk, 27 February 2007 "AGI News on" (in Italian). Archived from the original on 27 September 2007. Retrieved 27 February 2007.
See also
- Military history of Italy during World War II
- History of the Jews in Italy
- The British Eighth Armywho liberated Arezzo on July 16, 1944
- The US Fifth Armythat coordinated with the partisans at Cortona
- de:Klaus Konrad
References and bibliography
- Original research by Eugenio Calo's nephew Tullio Sonnino and Shmulik Suhami.
- Fuochi sui Monti dell'Appennino Toscano:Antonio Curina ; D. Badiali, Arezzo 1957.
- Arezzo distrutta 1943-44: Enzo Droandi ; Calosci editore, Cortona, 1995.
External links
- A short movie about Eugenio Calò (in Hebrew and Italian)
- The city of Reggello web page regarding the unveiling of a "Commemoration plate" in memory of Eugenio Calo's wife and children. (Italian) In memory of Carolina Lombroso Calo, Eugenio Calo's wife, and their children. In front of the house in Cascia di Reggello where they were arrested and deported, to be murdered in Auschwitz.
- The Guardian (October 29, 2004), reporting the S.Polo massacre investigation, Klaus Konrad, his role (supervised the executions that followed the torture), and his comments
- War diary of the King's Dragoon Guards who entered the village of San Polo on the morning of the 18th
- about Eugenio Calo at the National Partisans Association of Italy web site (Italian) Archived 22 January 2020 at the Wayback Machine
- AP (2-26-07): 87-year-old Austrian acquitted in 1944 San Polo massacre
- See Pages of Testimony at the Yad_Vashem site about Eugenio Calo and his three children, Renzo, Elena and Alberto. (As described above, the fourth child was born on the train during the 3 weeks transport to Auschwitz and therefore his name was never recorded).