Rodolfo Graziani, 1st Marquis of Neghelli ( , ; 11 August 1882 – 11 January 1955) also known as the Butcher of Ethiopia or the Butcher of Fezzan, was an Italian military officer in the Kingdom of Italy's Royal Army, primarily noted for his campaigns in Africa before and during World War II. A dedicated and prominent member of the National Fascist Party, he was a key figure in the Italian military during the regime of Benito Mussolini.
Graziani played an important role in the consolidation and expansion of the Italian colonial empire during the 1920s and 1930s, first in Libya and then in Ethiopia. He became infamous for alleged harsh repressive measures, such as the use of concentration camps that caused many civilian deaths. In February 1937, after an assassination attempt against him during a ceremony in Addis Ababa, Graziani ordered a period of brutal retribution now known as Yekatit 12. Shortly after Italy entered World War II, he returned to Libya as the commander of troops in Italian North Africa but resigned after the 1940–41 British offensive routed his forces, which led to a military catastrophe and a total strategic defeat.
Following the fall of the Fascist regime in Italy in 1943, he was the only Marshal of Italy who remained loyal to Benito Mussolini and was named the Minister of Defence of the Italian Social Republic, commanding its army and returning to active service against the Allies for the rest of the war. Graziani was never prosecuted by the United Nations War Crimes Commission; he was included on its list of Italians eligible to be prosecuted for war crimes, but Allied opposition and indifference to the prosecution of Italian war criminals frustrated Ethiopian attempts to bring him to justice. In 1950, an Italian court sentenced Graziani to 19 years of imprisonment for his collaboration with the Nazis; he was released after serving only four months. In the last years of his life, he went into politics, joining the Italian Social Movement and becoming its Honorary President in 1953. He died a few years later in 1955.
Early life Rodolfo Graziani was born in Filettino in the province of Frosinone on 11 August 1882. His father, Filippo Graziani, was the village doctor. He was educated in a seminary in the town of Subiaco and then went on to study in the Liceo Torquato Tasso in Rome. Due to economic restraints, Graziani could not apply to the Military Academy of Modena and so decided to study law at university instead, at the urging of his father.
Military career In 1903, he joined the Royal Italian Army as a reserve officer cadet whilst studying at university. In 1906, he passed a competitive examination for reserve officers to be made regular and became a second lieutenant, stationed at the 1st regiment of Grenadiers in Rome. Graziani's first posting was to Italian Eritrea where he learned Arabic and Tigrinya. In 1911, whilst in the Eritrean countryside, he was bitten by a snake which resulted in him being hospitalized. Because of this, he never served in the Italo-Turkish War. After his convalescence, he was repatriated to Italy where he was promoted to captain. In 1918, during World War I, Graziani in the Regio Esercito became the youngest Colonnello (Colonel) in Italian history.
Libya
After the war Graziani was sent to Libya, participating in the pacification of Tripolitania during the Jebel Akhdar campaign, which earned him an honorary membership card of the National Fascist Party, and of Cyrenaica (1928-1930), following which on 11 January 1930 Graziani was nominated vice-governor of Italian Cyrenaica. Graziani had understood that rapidity in movements and travel was fundamental in order not to give the enemy any respite and in doing this the contribution of the indigenous cavalry integrated into the "mobile columns" was fundamental, as happened with the Italian conquest of Kufra.
In 1931, he was sent to Italian Cyrenaica to repress the twenty-year anti-colonialist revolt led by ʿOmar al-Mukhtar: Graziani moved his headquarters to Zuwarah and managed to regain control, including political control, of almost all of Cyrenaica. Pietro Badoglio, eager to definitively close the issue with the Libyan rebels, ordered Graziani to remove the population of Gebel el-Achdar, where al-Mukhtār found refuge and protection and to transfer them to special concentration camps on the coast.
The decision was taken even before Graziani was appointed vice-governor; it had already been evident that the military option alone was not sufficient to weaken the Libyan resistance, but that the entire population that provided assistance had to be involved in the repression. The populations of the Gebel desert were therefore moved to the appropriate camps built on the coast, the most important of which were Marsa Brega, Soluch, Agedabia, El-Agheila, Sidi Ahmed and El-Abiar. The erection of the numerous camps did not fail to arouse controversy throughout the Arab world. The choice which proved decisive in defeating the rebellion in Cyrenaica, as al-Mukhtār himself later admitted, arose from the need to definitively separate the populations subjugated by the rebels, who had demonstrated a notable vitality.
Most of the semi-nomadic populations of the interior were then forced into concentration camps (see mass deportations of the Gebel). In the camps, there was a very high mortality rate due to the terrible hygienic-sanitary conditions and the scarcity of food and water, which cost the lives of tens of thousands of people. In these concentration camps and labour camps, thousands of Libyan prisoners died. Some prisoners were hanged or shot, but most prisoners died of starvation or disease.Italian atrocities in world war two | Education | The Guardian:# Rory Carroll # The Guardian, # Monday June 25 2001 His deeds earned him the nickname "the Butcher of Fezzan" among the Arabs.Hart, David M. Muslim Tribesmen and the Colonial Encounter in Fiction and on Film: The Image of the Muslim Tribes in Film and Fiction. Het Spinhuis, 2001. p. 121. Fascist propaganda, however, called him the Pacifier of Libya (Pacificatore della Libia).
On 11 September 1931 in the Got-Illfù plain, after being spotted by the Italian air force, the Libyan leader al-Mukhtār was taken prisoner after the Battle of Uadi Bu Taga. Al-Mukhtar was then sentenced to death by express will of Badoglio, after a summary trial, on 16 September 1931. In May 1934, Graziani was replaced in Cyrenaica by the new vice-governor Guglielmo Nasi.
Ethiopia
During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, as the Governor of Italian Somaliland, Graziani became the commander of the southern front. Despite orders to limit himself to an active defensive posture, intended to divert Ethiopian forces from possible counter-attacks from the south against Emilio De Bono's troops, Graziani disobeyed these instructions on 3 October. He authorised the execution of the "Milan Plan", a series of limited offensive thrusts along the entire front aimed at eliminating troublesome enemy garrisons and testing their resistance. Within about twenty days, Graziani seized the frontier posts of Dolo, Shilavo and Tefere Katama, which were fiercely defended by the troops of Afawarq Walda Samayat. These battles reached their peak on 10 October with the first chemical attack of the conflict carried out against the fort of Gorrahei. Gorrahei subsequently became the main objective of the "Gorizia Plan", launched on 28 October. However, it fell into Italian hands only on 6 November, largely because heavy rains slowed the advance.
Encouraged by the easy capture of Gorrahei, Graziani ordered General Pietro Maletti to pursue the fleeing enemy with motorised units. This action, on the one hand, facilitated the occupation of Kebri Dahar and led to the destruction of several Ethiopian units; on the other hand, it exposed Maletti’s men to enemy initiative. The pursuit proved risky and, on 11 November, Ethiopian reinforcements positioned along the banks of the Gerer River, under the command of the daring Fitawrari Guangul Kolase, launched a violent ambush on Maletti's column. After three hours of intense fighting and the loss of four light tanks, Maletti ordered a retreat to Kebri Dahar. This setback essentially immobilized the southern front, which greatly frustrated Graziani.
As early as 15 December 1935, General Graziani informed Minister Alessandro Lessona that he considered it necessary to employ every type of weapon "against the barbarian hordes" and requested "freedom of action in the use of poison gas". The following day, Mussolini himself authorised the general, stating: "I approve the use of gas if Your Excellency deems it necessary for supreme reasons of defence".
In mid December 1935, Ras Desta Damtew led an Ethiopian force from Negele Borana with the aim of bypassing the Italian fortified camp at Dolo and invading Italian Somaliland. After learning of these plans, Graziani ordered extensive aerial bombing attacks, including the use of gas, which repeatedly struck the advancing Ethiopian forces and even hit the Swedish medical unit accompanying Ras Desta’s troops. Additional sorties by Italian-led irregular forces disrupted Ethiopian movements, causing confusion and preventing some Ethiopian units from joining the planned offensive. With Ethiopian forces trapped between the Ganale Doria and Daua Parma rivers and far from their supply bases, Graziani launched a major counteroffensive on 10 January 1936 using a motorised force of about 14,000 men supported by air power. On 17 January, Graziani personally led a fast column toward Negele Borana, which was captured on 20 January after Ethiopian resistance collapsed. The remaining forces of Ras Desta withdrew into nearby forests while Italian troops secured the region.
After the victory over Ras Desta, Ethiopian troops under the command of Nasibu Zeamanuel and Wehib Pasha reorganized Ethiopian defences in the Ogaden. On 14 April, Graziani launched a large offensive against them with three columns commanded by Generals Guglielmo Nasi, Luigi Frusci, and Augusto Agostini. Despite difficult weather and pockets of resistance, Italian forces gradually advanced, capturing several key positions and breaking Ethiopian defensive lines. By late April, the Italian columns had taken Degehabur and surrounding strongholds, completing the first phase of the operation and preparing for the final advance toward Harar.
Addis Ababa fell to Badoglio on 5 May 1936. Graziani had wanted to reach Harar before Badoglio reached Addis Ababa, but failed to do so. Even so, on 9 May, Graziani was rewarded for his role as commander of the southern front with a promotion to the rank of Marshal of Italy. During his tour of an Ethiopian Orthodox church in Dire Dawa, Graziani fell into a pit covered by an ornate carpet, a trap that he believed had been set by the Ethiopian priests to injure or kill him. As a result, he held Ethiopian clerics in deep suspicion.