WWII - The Liberation of Florence and Fiesole
Florence, the capital of Tuscany, was liberated on August 11, 1944 by the combined effort of American troops of the 5th Army, by British troops of the 8th Army and by Italian Partisans of the Garibaldi “V” Brigade. Three weeks earlier most of the German forces had evacuated the center of the city, retreating toward the hills north of Florence, leaving the area in the hands of few hundreds dreadful SS paratroopers. Fiesole, the jewel center of the Etruscan civilization, beautifully located on a hill only 5 miles N-E of Florence, was not liberated until September 1, 1944.
After Florence had been liberated, Fiesole and San Domenico (a small town only a mile south of Fiesole) had to endure three additional weeks of all kinds of violence and abuses by Himmler’s infamous SS paratroopers. A few weeks ago, for the local people who survived those long weeks of nightmare, the 66th Anniversary of the Liberation of Fiesole was the most meaningful celebration of their life.
They remembered with intensity and passion those dramatic days, the not-so-lucky relatives that didn’t survive, the dedicated nuns of the Camerata Hospital of San Domenico, killed by a German mine and many other tragic events. Special thanks go to Nicolò Mattina for his cooperation in providing informative material that enabled L'Italo-Americano to print about the events that led to the liberation of Fiesole.
Since facts and details of the liberation of Florence have already been covered in the past, we will focus on the history of Fiesole and on the days of its liberation. Fiesole, one of the original Etruscan towns, was founded in the 9th century B.C. - The Etruscans occupied the central part of Italy, mostly Tuscany and Latium for approximately 9 centuries, but they were replaced and absorbed by the Romans who conquered the city in 283 A.C. - Roman Emperor Stilicho (359-408) won a great battle over the Germanic hordes of the vandals [History repeats itself].
During the Gothic war, Fiesole was besieged several times. In 539 the Byzantine general Justinus (482-523), captured and razed its fortifications. For several centuries in the Middle-Ages, Fiesole was an independent and prosperous city; in fact in early years it was more powerful than Florence, a much larger city in the valley below. Many wars arose among Fiesole and Florence. In 1025 Fiesole was sacked by the Florentines who finally conquered it in 1125.
Fiesole is 970 feet above sea level, only 5 miles N.E. of Florence. Today Fiesole is an Episcopal see and a comune of the province of Florence in the region of Tuscany. Fiesole is truly a jewel city, not only because of its Etruscan origins but because a few feet away from its main square there are the Roman Baths and the Roman Theatre. A few feet from its main square, Piazza Mino, the rem- nants of the Etruscan walls can still be admired today.
In the very same square there are the Palazzo Comunale (City Hall) of the 14th century and il Duomo (the Cathedral), an early Tuscan Romanesque Basilica begun in 1028, with the shrine of St. Romulus martyr, who was the first bishop of Fiesole and a disciple of St. Peter. On the crest of the hill of Fiesole is the Monastery of San Francesco, with the cells of San Bernardino of Siena (1380-1444) and of seven Dominican Beati. Below Fiesole, between Fiesole and Florence,(485 ft.) lies San Domenico di Fiesole; in its Dominican monastery lived for many years the sculptor and painter Fra Giovanni Angelico (1387-1455).
Near San Domenico there is the Villa delle Fontanelle, where St. Aloysius lived in summer months. Other very famous places are Villa Schifanoia, Villa Medici and Castello di Vincigliata. In the town of San Domenico there is also the 100 bed-capacity Camerata Hospital, that during the Second World War suffered lots of abuses and violations by the German SS troops.
The director of the hospital, Dr.Norberto Lanata and its staff, the Dominican nuns and the patients, were truly courageous and heroic when submitted to the unbearable harassment by German fiendish elements that wanted the hospital evacuated in order to use the building as an observatory point to control the movement of allies troops down in the river Arno valley. Even if the director could have found a building where to relocate the patients, it would have been impossible to move them since the Germans had stolen all the ambulances.
Furthermore, the director thought, they would have stolen all the major equip- ment of the hospital. After the Germans blew up the water main, water indispensable for drinking, cooking and washing had to be provided daily from a local well filling hundreds of bottles and flasks and carrying them back and forth; only nuns and female workers were allowed to attend to this chore.
“Men will be shot on sight - the Germans warned - if found outside the hospital or near the well”. In addition to getting water, the next most severe problem that came up almost daily was the burying of people killed by artillery fire or by the German SS ruffians who shot for fun at everything that moved. Every day the main road that leads to Fiesole was traveled by Wehrmacht trucks carrying all kinds of merchandise stolen by the Germans on retreat, like mattresses, chairs, typewriters, radios, chickens, goats, pigs while during the night soldiers were pushing ahead herds of cattle.
Dr. Lanata learned from the Administrator of “Careggi”, the largest hospital in Florence, that the Germans had stolen from his buildings all the radiology equipment, the operating rooms equipment, the laboratory equipment, including all the microscopes, the sterilizators, the water distillation equipment and much more. One of the most noble and remarkable deed accomplished by the Director of the Camerata Hospital during the war, was the hiding in its facilities, at the greatest personal risk, English and Canadians POWs, escaped from prison camps in Northern Italy and also a few Italian draft dodgers who didn’t want to join the new Fascists of the Republic of Salò.
During the night of August 31 the Germans, before leaving the area, set hundreds of small mines, hiding them everywhere for the sole purpose of mutilating the hand of the persons who tried to pick a fruit from a tree or to remove the cap of a fountain pen found on the street. After the war, official statistics reported on major newspapers that over 127,000 people, mostly children, were mutilated by such infernal devices left behind by the Germans for the only purpose of inflicting additional pain and suffering on innocent human beings.
Among the most glorious martyrs of the city we must remember the three heroic Carabinieri (Italian Military Police) Alberto La Rocca, Vittorio Marandola and Fulvio Sbarretti. The Germans were looking for them but unable to locate them decided to execute ten innocent hostages. When the three carabinieri learned about the German intentions, surrendered themselves to the Germans who immediately executed them at the cemetery north of Piazza Mino of Fiesole.
Another splendid hero was Salvo D’Acquisto, who was chosen by the Germans to be executed together with other 19 innocent citizens. The twenty men had been already lined up against a wall to be executed when Salvo D’Acquisto stepped out and told the German officer in charge of the firing squad that he was the only responsible for the attack against the German convoy. Salvo D’Acquisto was immediately shot. His sublime sacrifice (he was totally innocent of any wrong doing) saved the lives of the other 19 companions. In the early morning hours of September 1, 1944 groups of city partisans gathered in the main square of the city and raised the Italian flag on top of the San Francesco monastery.
Then they mingled with the population of Fiesole to finally rejoice together and celebrate the so much yearned freedom and peace.
We would feel remissive if we didn't mention that during the tragic days of the liberation of the city, another fulgid hero, Bruno Giugni, was also savagedly killed by the Germans during those terrible days when Fiesole saw so many of its youngest men massacred in vain.
