On 10 September 1943, exactly 76 years ago, the capital of Italy surrendered to the Nazi invasion. The occupation of Rome, which began with the assault on 8 September by German troops led by Albert Kesselring, ended just two days later with the surrender document signed by Lieutenant Colonel Leandro Giaccone. The agreement envisaged that Rome would remain an open city, but the city was subsequently occupied by German troops who rapidly flowed in from both the south and the north. Soon after, all units of the Royal Army in the area were disarmed and disbanded, excluding part of the Piave Division, which remained in arms to ensure public order within the "Command of the Open City of Rome" (entrusted to General Giorgio Carlo Calvi di Bergolo himself), until these troops too were disarmed by the Germans on 23 September 1943 after the proclamation of the Italian Social Republic.
The two days of battle to conquer Rome were bitter and also involved the civilian population (of the more than 1.000 Italian dead, some hundreds were civilians, many of whom were women), even if the resistance opposed was absolutely disorganised, so much so that despite the Italian workforces were numerically superior, the event is remembered as the "German occupation of Rome" but also, by some historians, as the "failure to defend Rome". The event was symbolically very important, not only because in those days, to be precise on 9 September, the CLN - National Liberation Committee was founded in via Carlo Poma, which then played a decisive role in the Resistance, and then because the Nazi occupation marked the precipitation of the escalations of violence.
Among the consequences of the German occupation of Rome there were in particular the deportation of numerous civilians, as well as the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine. A little over a month later, on October 16, 1943, it is impossible not to remember the terrible event roundup of the ghetto of Rome, a roundup in which 1259 people were taken away, including 689 women, 363 men and 207 boys and girls, almost all belonging to the Jewish community of the capital. A few months later, on March 24, 1944, the German invasion led to themassacre of the Fosse Ardeatine, in which 335 Italian civilians and soldiers, political prisoners, Jews or ordinary prisoners were slaughtered without warning, in retaliation for the partisan attack in via Rasella, accomplished the day before and in which 33 German soldiers lost their lives.
