"KILL ME!" And Go froze
the massacre of the SS
RESISTANCE TO BE. The story of Don Antonio Vellutini who always fought openly against the Nazis
The Germans always faced them head on. In fact, hard-nosed. Once, to escape, he broke his bike on the rump with a group of SS men who had captured and beaten. The bell tower of St. Leopold in Vada was used by the Nazis to spot landings of enemy patrol boats: he offered them to keep good bottles of wine and then went off to calm down, at the rectory, to hear Radio London. Another time in Solvay was stopped along with Italo Don Gambini by a German patrol. In the bag led anti-Nazi leaflets prepared by partisans Guardistallo and Castellina which was in close contact. Was unimpressed: he cried in front of the Germans: Heil Hitler!. "Absolutely - say years later - those two soldiers have thought:" Look at that priest there, and of our own. " I had just made fun of. Agreed not escape, if we start to shake you stop and searched. Often the trick I used to take around the Germans. "
Priest combative
Vellutini Don Antonio was. One of those priests, courage (the gold medal at the 1998 value) - in the words of Don Roberto Angeli - the hell of war "is really felt and wanted priests to perform their mission without compromise," in a narrow absolute bond with their people. A Vada were there in February 1943 (remained until his death July 25, 2002) with curriculum by 'rebel'. At the seminary in Lucca - where he was born - put him "smartly to the door because it was too blatantly fascist. Read (he had pocket in two degrees: in philosophy and letters), but bespectacled intellectual. It was a blood, pugnacious, impetuous. Bread, bread, wine wine, "Don Antonio was a man who had within him such a compressed energy - wrote the Christian Social Renato Orlandini who knew him in those days of the Resistance - which gave him a strong desire to do , undoing, and to overthrow the world, it was so disgusting then. not conspirators spoke loudly as the most natural thing .
June 20, 1944: SS in action
A loud voice also spoke June 20 to 64 years ago. "Sara
nno were about four or five in the morning - reminded Angiolina Route - We were woken up by the Germans, breaking windows and opening the curtains with the butt of his gun, jumped the window, came inside and we have taken out all in a row. So it was not just for ourselves but for all families. They took us all in the square go. " In 2005 the parish of St. Leopold has collected many sad tales of dawn in one of the "Notebooks Vadesi. "On that day - we read the story of Guelfa Grassi - we were told we had to go all the streets, but who could rimpiattarsi is rimpiattava, who could run away, run away. I was still with my in-laws. Courses room to take my children (one was six years old, the other three), two Germans when they arrived: the crown of the neck by machine gun cartridges, which made us tremble only to see them (in the photo Cippo dedicated to the victims of 'massacre ).
carte blanche to the Nazis
was the horrible history of raids and massacres of the Wehrmacht and the SS retreat at the dawn of that day also walked the streets of Vada. No one has ever been able to explain the exact reason for the gratuitous cruelty of those hours (Revenge of the local Republicans? Retaliation for the Allied strafing some rafts bound for the German Elbe?). What is certain is that the infamous federmaresciallo Kes Serling in an order of three days before had been clear: "I will cover every commander in the selection and harshness of the medium beyond the measure given to us." Practically gave carte blanche to repel the Nazi fury "treason" and dall'accerchiamento Italian ally. Any excuse - real or perceived - was good for tired and hungry army unleashed terror among civilians and a climate of hatred toward the partisans . According to most reliable studies were about 10,000 victims of massacres, killings and reprisals from the Nazis in September 1943 and May 1945. That June 20 - in what is known to history as' the massacre of Go "- were to die in four. And if there were many more great about it is because Don Vellutini.
Four dead absurd
"Partizan! Partizan, "was the fierce cry with which the Germans accompanied the raid house to house. He accused the country of being a nest of partisans. To be at home enough to have passed off a knife or a bit 'of TNT for fishing. The fisherman Rofi Delphi, 22 years, the sight of the soldiers fled in fear. He was shot and wounded him. Shortly after they found him and executed him in the arms of his mother. The cousins Ivo (29 years) and Elio (27 years) were killed just outside Vanni Vada. Ivo had been wounded by a stray bullet while he was hidden in a cane field (to escape the raid). The cousin took him on his bicycle and went to the hospital in Solvay. Surprised by a German truck were shot down mercilessly. Roger Luppichini (48 years), to hide his son Emilio, who had deserted the call to arms for the Republic of Salò, was killed at home by the Nazis.
"Only I'm partisan
The four killed were taken to the town square. Above them a sign that Don Vellutini has maintained for years: "Bandits Italian and German soldiers on fire. " Don Antonio, under the threat of the Germans, he was forced to ring the bell hammer to rally the inhabitants of the country. If he had not refused to gather in the church probably would have been another Stazzema. "There were people all around the machine guns, like a circle - said Angie Route - a grape-shot every three meters. Already there ready to shoot: waiting for the order. " It was then that - according to the account of the many witnesses - Don Vellutini with a gun pointed at her head and did not see us more throated shouted a phrase similar to this: "Cowards! Murderers! The My people are not partisan. Take me, but leave others. Shoot, shoot up ahead. " An unexpected act of courage that intimidated the SS and was probably decisive save 400 Vadesi by an absurd tragedy. Angie Route concluded that his story: "It also saved my family and the whole country for that gesture of Don Vellutini, that he alone could do. To this must be remembered always, always, always. "
other stories here on Don Vellutini:
- lungomarecastiglioncello
A whole country to the rescue of Jewish children
April 6, 1944 WAS ...
During 1944 the community of Go was the protagonist of another episode in the past to the history of the Resistance. In 2005, the Region of Tuscany and became the symbol of the history of Memorial Day. President Claudio Martini discovered the license plate is now clearly visible in the station's Go "from this station - the plaque reads - in early April of 1944 were initiated the deportation of Jewish children of the orphanage and their Livorno director. An air strike stopped the train that transported them. Families of Vada and the parish priest Don Antonio Vellutini welcomed them into their homes. Memorial Day 2005. " It was April 6, 1944, the 23 Jewish children of the orphanage Leghorn Street Paoli Sassetta who were displaced in early 1943 were taken from two black shirts . Go destination: the train from there to the field Fossoli, then Auschwitz.
As often happened - he said in an interview Vellutini Don Lorenzo Bientinesi - the train was bombed and strafed by Allied planes. Whenever there was a bombing, I took the bike and I went to see to bring relief. After the bombing, the director asked me what to do and I advised her to get in the center of Vada. Meanwhile, many families who lived there became close below and I delivered some of their these children. " While probably aware of the risks, according to current regulations, could lead to give hospitality to a jew, many Vadesi, to meet the requirement of their parish priest, also chose the way of hospitality. And for the Jewish children were saved.
Link:
In 2005, the symbol of the history of memorial day Tuscany
Bibliography
L. Bientinesi, Vellutini Don Antonio, a Catholic priest in the Resistance and nell'Antifascismo Livorno, Welcome & Cavaciocchi, 2006
P. Lemme, Until they came to pick us up. The events Israelite Orphanage in Livorno during the Second World War , Regional Council of Tuscany, 2005
R. Orlandini, Around forty , MCS, 1990 Go
: 1940-1945 a time marked by war, Notebooks Vadesi No 12, by the Parish of St. Leopold, 2005
The Germans always faced them head on. In fact, hard-nosed. Once, to escape, he broke his bike on the rump with a group of SS men who had captured and beaten. The bell tower of St. Leopold in Vada was used by the Nazis to spot landings of enemy patrol boats: he offered them to keep good bottles of wine and then went off to calm down, at the rectory, to hear Radio London. Another time in Solvay was stopped along with Italo Don Gambini by a German patrol. In the bag led anti-Nazi leaflets prepared by partisans Guardistallo and Castellina which was in close contact. Was unimpressed: he cried in front of the Germans: Heil Hitler!. "Absolutely - say years later - those two soldiers have thought:" Look at that priest there, and of our own. " I had just made fun of. Agreed not escape, if we start to shake you stop and searched. Often the trick I used to take around the Germans. "
Priest combative
Vellutini Don Antonio was. One of those priests, courage (the gold medal at the 1998 value) - in the words of Don Roberto Angeli - the hell of war "is really felt and wanted priests to perform their mission without compromise," in a narrow absolute bond with their people. A Vada were there in February 1943 (remained until his death July 25, 2002) with curriculum by 'rebel'. At the seminary in Lucca - where he was born - put him "smartly to the door because it was too blatantly fascist. Read (he had pocket in two degrees: in philosophy and letters), but bespectacled intellectual. It was a blood, pugnacious, impetuous. Bread, bread, wine wine, "Don Antonio was a man who had within him such a compressed energy - wrote the Christian Social Renato Orlandini who knew him in those days of the Resistance - which gave him a strong desire to do , undoing, and to overthrow the world, it was so disgusting then. not conspirators spoke loudly as the most natural thing .
June 20, 1944: SS in action
A loud voice also spoke June 20 to 64 years ago. "Sara
nno were about four or five in the morning - reminded Angiolina Route - We were woken up by the Germans, breaking windows and opening the curtains with the butt of his gun, jumped the window, came inside and we have taken out all in a row. So it was not just for ourselves but for all families. They took us all in the square go. " In 2005 the parish of St. Leopold has collected many sad tales of dawn in one of the "Notebooks Vadesi. "On that day - we read the story of Guelfa Grassi - we were told we had to go all the streets, but who could rimpiattarsi is rimpiattava, who could run away, run away. I was still with my in-laws. Courses room to take my children (one was six years old, the other three), two Germans when they arrived: the crown of the neck by machine gun cartridges, which made us tremble only to see them (in the photo Cippo dedicated to the victims of 'massacre ). carte blanche to the Nazis
was the horrible history of raids and massacres of the Wehrmacht and the SS retreat at the dawn of that day also walked the streets of Vada. No one has ever been able to explain the exact reason for the gratuitous cruelty of those hours (Revenge of the local Republicans? Retaliation for the Allied strafing some rafts bound for the German Elbe?). What is certain is that the infamous federmaresciallo Kes Serling in an order of three days before had been clear: "I will cover every commander in the selection and harshness of the medium beyond the measure given to us." Practically gave carte blanche to repel the Nazi fury "treason" and dall'accerchiamento Italian ally. Any excuse - real or perceived - was good for tired and hungry army unleashed terror among civilians and a climate of hatred toward the partisans . According to most reliable studies were about 10,000 victims of massacres, killings and reprisals from the Nazis in September 1943 and May 1945. That June 20 - in what is known to history as' the massacre of Go "- were to die in four. And if there were many more great about it is because Don Vellutini.
Four dead absurd "Partizan! Partizan, "was the fierce cry with which the Germans accompanied the raid house to house. He accused the country of being a nest of partisans. To be at home enough to have passed off a knife or a bit 'of TNT for fishing. The fisherman Rofi Delphi, 22 years, the sight of the soldiers fled in fear. He was shot and wounded him. Shortly after they found him and executed him in the arms of his mother. The cousins Ivo (29 years) and Elio (27 years) were killed just outside Vanni Vada. Ivo had been wounded by a stray bullet while he was hidden in a cane field (to escape the raid). The cousin took him on his bicycle and went to the hospital in Solvay. Surprised by a German truck were shot down mercilessly. Roger Luppichini (48 years), to hide his son Emilio, who had deserted the call to arms for the Republic of Salò, was killed at home by the Nazis.
"Only I'm partisan
The four killed were taken to the town square. Above them a sign that Don Vellutini has maintained for years: "Bandits Italian and German soldiers on fire. " Don Antonio, under the threat of the Germans, he was forced to ring the bell hammer to rally the inhabitants of the country. If he had not refused to gather in the church probably would have been another Stazzema. "There were people all around the machine guns, like a circle - said Angie Route - a grape-shot every three meters. Already there ready to shoot: waiting for the order. " It was then that - according to the account of the many witnesses - Don Vellutini with a gun pointed at her head and did not see us more throated shouted a phrase similar to this: "Cowards! Murderers! The My people are not partisan. Take me, but leave others. Shoot, shoot up ahead. " An unexpected act of courage that intimidated the SS and was probably decisive save 400 Vadesi by an absurd tragedy. Angie Route concluded that his story: "It also saved my family and the whole country for that gesture of Don Vellutini, that he alone could do. To this must be remembered always, always, always. "
other stories here on Don Vellutini:
- lungomarecastiglioncello
A whole country to the rescue of Jewish children
April 6, 1944 WAS ...
During 1944 the community of Go was the protagonist of another episode in the past to the history of the Resistance. In 2005, the Region of Tuscany and became the symbol of the history of Memorial Day. President Claudio Martini discovered the license plate is now clearly visible in the station's Go "from this station - the plaque reads - in early April of 1944 were initiated the deportation of Jewish children of the orphanage and their Livorno director. An air strike stopped the train that transported them. Families of Vada and the parish priest Don Antonio Vellutini welcomed them into their homes. Memorial Day 2005. " It was April 6, 1944, the 23 Jewish children of the orphanage Leghorn Street Paoli Sassetta who were displaced in early 1943 were taken from two black shirts . Go destination: the train from there to the field Fossoli, then Auschwitz. As often happened - he said in an interview Vellutini Don Lorenzo Bientinesi - the train was bombed and strafed by Allied planes. Whenever there was a bombing, I took the bike and I went to see to bring relief. After the bombing, the director asked me what to do and I advised her to get in the center of Vada. Meanwhile, many families who lived there became close below and I delivered some of their these children. " While probably aware of the risks, according to current regulations, could lead to give hospitality to a jew, many Vadesi, to meet the requirement of their parish priest, also chose the way of hospitality. And for the Jewish children were saved.
Link:
In 2005, the symbol of the history of memorial day Tuscany
Bibliography
L. Bientinesi, Vellutini Don Antonio, a Catholic priest in the Resistance and nell'Antifascismo Livorno, Welcome & Cavaciocchi, 2006
P. Lemme, Until they came to pick us up. The events Israelite Orphanage in Livorno during the Second World War , Regional Council of Tuscany, 2005
R. Orlandini, Around forty , MCS, 1990 Go
: 1940-1945 a time marked by war, Notebooks Vadesi No 12, by the Parish of St. Leopold, 2005
( published in "The Week-Toscanaoggi" of June 15, 2008)
