Tuscan Lidice

As the Germans were preparing to retreat from the little Italian town of Civitella, Italian Partisans shot three German soldiers.

That evening, a few hours after the shooting, a German commandant issued an ultimatum: Civitella would be burned to the ground by seven next morning, unless the villagers surrendered the culprits. The natives did not take the threat very seriously. No informer appeared.

At seven next morning, many of Civitella's women & children were still in bed. A German tank, mounting a flamethrower, rumbled slowly through the village street. As it passed each house, its fire-spitting nozzle licked a blast of flame through the open window. The sleeping mothers and children were burned to death where they lay; the houses went up in flames. Then the tank turned and blocked one end of the street.

At the open end of the street German soldiers appeared. They rounded up the men, about 150 of them, herded them to the public square. There German machine guns were waiting. The machine guns chattered.

One old man, two women, a few Partisans who had watched helplessly from a distance made their way to Eighth Army headquarters near by, reported what they had seen.

Little Civitella, nine miles off the main highway to Arezzo, has never been described by that careful German traveler, Karl Baedeker. But Italians will remember it.

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