Italian war crimes have mainly been associated with the Kingdom of Italy under Fascist rule during the Pacification of Libya, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Spanish Civil War, and Second World War.
Italo-Turkish War In 1911, Italy went to war with the Ottoman Empire and invaded Ottoman Tripolitania. One of the most notorious incidents during this conflict was the October Tripoli massacre, wherein an estimated 4,000 inhabitants of the Mechiya oasis were killed as retribution for the execution and mutilation of Italian captives taken in an ambush at nearby Sciara Sciat. Over the course of three days, Libyan and Turkish men, women, and children were indiscriminately murdered in the streets, in their houses, farms, and gardens. Libyan and Turkish women were also reportedly raped and sexually assaulted by Italian troops, prompting ferocious and violent retaliation against captured Italian troops by Ottoman soldiers. In another incident during the war reported by a British officer serving with the Turkish forces, Italian soldiers burned several hundred civilians in a mosque, wherein women and children had taken refuge. In 1912, 10,000 Turkish and Arab troops were imprisoned in concentration camps in Libya, and all Turkish troops were executed.
World War I
During the Italian occupation of Southwestern Anatolia following the Ottoman defeat and surrender in the First World War, a large number of reports and complaints reportedly emerged of Italian occupation troops committing rape against Turkish civilians in the cities and villages they occupied. On the other hand, some reports also suggest benevolence and fairness, with Italian forces sometimes even handing out chocolate and postcards to Turkish children, as well as providing refuge and shelter to displaced Turkish civilians. Others state that the behavior of the Italian troops in Turkey was mixed, and was generally “arbitrary”, and depended on the particular circumstances.
Pacification of Libya
In 1923, Benito Mussolini embarked upon a pacification of Libya campaign to consolidate control over the Italian territory of Libya and Italian forces began to occupy large areas of Libya in order to allow Italian colonists to rapidly settle in it. They were met with resistance by the Senussi who were led by Omar Mukhtar. Civilians suspected of collaboration with the Senussi were executed. Refugees from the fighting were subject to bombing and strafing by Italian aircraft. In 1930, in northern Cyrenaica, 20,000 Bedouins were relocated and their land was given to Italian settlers. The Bedouins were forced to march across the desert into concentration camps. Starvation and other poor conditions in the camps were rampant and the internees were used for forced labour, ultimately leading to the death of nearly 4,000 internees by the time they were closed in September 1933. Accounts of war crimes and atrocities committed by Rodolfo Graziani’s forces report that they threw prisoners from high altitude planes, ran them over with tanks while they were still alive, raped and disemboweled women, indiscriminately bombarded villages with mustard gas, and did not spare women or children. It is estimated that 20,000 to 100,000 Libyans were killed from the period of 1929–1934 in total, via death marches, chemical gas attacks, and brutal conditions in desert concentration camps.De Grand, Alexander (2004). "Mussolini's Follies: Fascism in Its Imperial and Racist Phase, 1935-1940". Contemporary European History. 13 (2). Cambridge University Press: 127–147. doi:10.1017/S0960777304001602. ISSN 0960-7773. JSTOR 20081201. The United Nations estimated that during the entire Italian colonial period, from 1912 to 1942, 250,000–300,000 Libyan civilians lost their lives under Italian colonialism. Ali Abdullatif Ahmida suggests this figure is higher, at 500,000.
Second Italo-Ethiopian War During the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, Italian violations of the laws of war were reported and documented.Effie G. H. Pedaliu (2004) Britain and the 'Hand-over' of Italian War Criminals to Yugoslavia, 1945–48. Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 39, No. 4, Special Issue: Collective Memory, pp. 503–529 These included the use of chemical weapons such as mustard gas, the use of concentration camps in counter-insurgency, and attacks on Red Cross facilities.Rainer Baudendistel, Between bombs and good intentions: the Red Cross and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936, Berghahn Books, 2006, p. 239; 131-2. Google books link Italian authorities claimed that these actions were in response to the Ethiopians' use of Dum-Dum bullets, which had been banned by declaration IV, 3 of the Hague Convention, and mutilation of captured soldiers.League of Nations
According to the Ethiopian government, 382,800 civilian deaths were directly attributable to the Italian invasion. 17,800 women and children were killed by bombing, 30,000 people were killed in the massacre of February 1937, 35,000 people died in concentration camps, and 300,000 people died of privations due to the destruction of their villages and farms. The Ethiopian government also claimed that the Italians destroyed 2,000 churches and 525,000 houses, while confiscating or slaughtering 6 million cattle, 7 million sheep and goats, and 1.7 million horses, mules, and camels, leading to the latter deaths.Barker, A. J. (1968). The Civilising Mission: The Italo-Ethiopian War 1935–6. London: Cassell. . Pages 292-293.
During the 1937–1941 Italian occupation, atrocities also occurred; in the February 1937 Yekatit 12 massacres as many as 30,000 Ethiopians may have been killed and many more imprisoned as a reprisal for the attempted assassination of Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani. A 2017 study estimated that 19,200 were killed - a fifth of the population of Addis Ababa. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church was especially singled out. Thousands of Ethiopians also died in concentration camps such as Danane and Nocra.
Spanish Civil War 75,000 Italian soldiers of the Corpo Truppe Volontarie fought on the side of the Nationalists during the Spanish Civil War, as did 7,000 men of the Aviazione Legionaria. While they also bombed valid military targets such as the railway infrastructure of Xativa, the Italian air force partook in many bombings of civilian targets for the purposes of "weakening the morale of the Reds". One of the more notable bombings was the Bombing of Barcelona, in which 1,300 civilians were killed, with thousands more being wounded or dehoused.1931-2017., Thomas, Hugh, (2003). The Spanish Civil War (4th ed.). London: Penguin. . OCLC 53806663. Other cities subjected to terror bombing by the Italians included Durango, Alicante, Granollers, and Guernica.
During the Italian occupation of Mallorca, from 1936–1939, Italian forces, led by Fascist Blackshirt leader Arconovaldo Bonaccorsi, initiated a brutal reign of terror, arranging the murder of 3,000 people accused of being Communists, and emptying Mallorca's prisons by having all prisoners shot.Mr. Ray Moseley. Mussolini's Shadow: The Double Life of Count Galeazzo Ciano. Yale University Press, 2000. pp. 27.
Documents found in British archives by the historian Effie Pedaliu and documents found in Italian archives by the Italian historian Davide Conti, pointed out that the memory of the existence of the Italian concentration camps and Italian war crimes committed during the Spanish Civil War had been repressed due to the Cold War.
World War II
After the end of World War II in Europe, Italian officials, academics and media outlets "re-invented Italy as a victim, gulling the rest of the world into acclaiming the Good Italian long before Captain Corelli strummed a mandolin." The Italian government steadfastly refused requests to turn over suspected war criminals to Yugoslavian, Greek, Albanian, Ethiopian or Libyan authorities. In an effort to keep Italy within the Western sphere of influence, the British and American governments did not pressure Italian officials to extradite the suspects.Italy's bloody secret (Archived by WebCite®), written by Rory Carroll, Education, The Guardian, June 2001Effie Pedaliu (2004) Britain and the 'Hand-over' of Italian War Criminals to Yugoslavia, 1945–48. Journal of Contemporary History. Vol. 39, No. 4, Special Issue: Collective Memory, pp. 503–529 Fillipo Focardi, a historian at Rome's German Historical Institute, has discovered archived documents showing how Italian civil servants were told to avoid extraditions. A typical instruction was issued by the Italian prime minister, Alcide De Gasperi, reading: "Try to gain time, avoid answering requests."
A number of suspects, known to be on the list of Italian war criminals that Yugoslavia, Greece and Ethiopia requested an extradition of, at the end of World War II never saw anything like the Nuremberg trial, because with the beginning of the Cold War, Anglo-American officials saw in Pietro Badoglio, who was also on the list, a guarantee of an anti-communist post-war Italy.Oliva, Gianni (2006) «Si ammazza troppo poco». I crimini di guerra italiani. 1940–43 , Mondadori, Baldissara, Luca & Pezzino, Paolo (2004). Crimini e memorie di guerra: violenze contro le popolazioni e politiche del ricordo, L'Ancora del Mediterraneo.
Yugoslavia
In April 1941, Italy invaded Yugoslavia, occupying large portions of Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia, while directly annexing to Italy the Ljubljana Province, Gorski Kotar and Central Dalmatia, along with most Croatian islands. To suppress the mounting resistance led by the Slovenian and Croatian Partisans, the Italians adopted tactics of "summary executions, hostage-taking, reprisals, internments and the burning of houses and villages. To regain military momentum, the Italians persuaded the Chetniks to become their subordinates. Mario Roatta recruited Serbs to help counteract German control in Croatia. The Chetniks were to occupy territories cleared by Axis rastrellamenti instead of the pro-German Croatians. Roatta, like his fellow commanders, was wary that Wehrmacht generals would not honor Hitler’s repeated verbal promises to respect Italy’s long-standing imperial claims in Yugoslavia. In exchange for their cooperation, the Chetniks expected Italy to turn a blind eye while they avenged themselves against Muslims and conducted retaliatory raids on Croatian communities. Although Roatta did not support such vengeance due to the distress it caused in Zagreb, his occasional warnings to the Chetniks to restrain themselves were ineffective. Many field commanders preferred to spare their troops by using Chetniks and collaborators to undertake the unpleasant task of rooting out partisans.
In May 1942 Mussolini told Mario Roatta, commander of the Italian 2nd Army, that "the best situation is when the enemy is dead. So we must take numerous hostages and shoot them whenever necessary." To implement this Roatta suggested the closure of the Province of Fiume and Croatia, the evacuation of people in the east of the former frontiers to a distance of 3–4 km inland, the organization of border patrols to kill anyone attempting to cross, the mass internment of "twenty to thirty thousand persons" to Italian concentration camps, burning down houses, and the confiscation of property from villagers suspected of having contact with Partisans for families of Italian soldiers. He also mentioned the need to extend the plan to Dalmatia and for the construction of concentration camps. Roatta insisted, "If necessary don't shy away from using cruelty. It must be a complete cleansing. We need to intern all the inhabitants and put Italian families in their place."
Italian concentration camps