Eighty Years After, Italian Nazi Victims To Receive Compensation

Eighty years after a brutal Nazi occupation of Italy during world war two the descendants of some of the victims in Fornelli are finally set to receive compensation for their families’ suffering.

In a historic ruling, an Italian court has awarded 12 million euros (USD 13 million) to be distributed among the relatives of those who endured Nazi atrocities during that period.

In October 1943, after the Nazis began a brutal occupation of their former ally, German troops hanged six Italian civilians on a hillside in southern Italy as collective punishment for the killing of a soldier, who had been foraging for food.

“We still mark the event every year. It hasn’t been forgotten,” said Mauro Petrarca, the great-grandson of one of those killed, Domenico Lancellotta, a 52-year-old Roman Catholic father of five daughters and a son.

All but one of the family members alive at the time of the killings are now dead, but under Italian law, damages owed to them can still be passed on to their heirs. This means Petrarca is set to receive around 130,000 euros ($142,000) under the terms of a 2020 court ruling.

In an ironic twist, it will be Italy rather than Germany that pays up, after it lost a battle in the International Court of Justice over whether Berlin could still be liable for damages tied to World War Two crimes and atrocities.