The Marocchinate: Rapes of Italy
“They broke their teeth to Avoid them biting their penises during Oral sex”
On 14th May 1944, the decisive Battle of Monte Cassino was nearing its end. It was one of the most critical battles of the Italian Campaign during World War II.
The Italian Civil War
The Italian Civil War was fought by the Italian Co-Belligerent Army and Italian Resistance against Benito Mussolini’s Italian Fascists and the Italian Social Republic from 9th Sep 1943 to 2 May 1945 (when Nazi forces surrendered in Italy).
The Co-Belligerent Army and the Italian Resistance simultaneously fought against the Nazi German Army. They joined the coalition of the Allies, in Monte Cassino.
Mussolini’s Fascist Government forces were based in northern Italy, and guerrillas of the Italian resistance and troops of the Monarchical Government were found in southern Italy.
The Allied forces had to fight for four months to overcome the obstinate resistance of the German forces. Thus it was able to follow its advance toward the north of Italy.
The French Expeditionary Corps
On May 14th, 1944, what took place was one of the worst war crimes committed in that conflict and tarnished the heroic struggle of the Allied forces.
One of the main components of the Allied forces in the Italy Campaign was the French Expeditionary Corps.
They were under the command of the movement of Free France led by General Charles de Gaulle.
Moroccan Goumiers were the most French Expeditionary Corps soldiers at that time. This was a group of troops of the French Army coming from the French Colonies in North Africa.
On 14th May 1944, French General Alphonse Juin, commander of the Expeditionary Corps, sent Goumier soldiers to Italy on the front against Nazi Forces.
The Allied forces won this battle. But then the lives of civilians became worse than hell in the region.
The Moroccan soldiers of the French Army began to travel the slopes of Monte Cassino and in the localities of the traditional region of Ciociaria.
For days they devoted themselves to raping thousands of women, teenage girls, and little girls in a frenzy of savage violence.
Soldiers devoted themselves to savagely raping all the women they encountered.
They raped every woman from 11 to 86 years old in every town and village. Simultaneously, they took every village and town under their control.
France soldiers frantically searched the women in the streets and entered the houses to look for them. Men who tried to defend their daughters, mothers, sisters, or wives were often brutally murdered.
Even some men were raped, such as Catholic priest Alberto Terrill of the town of Esperia, who unsuccessfully attempted to save three women from sexual violence.
Not only him, but records also say that around 700 men were raped during that time.
The priest was sodomized all night by the French soldiers. He died two days later due to internal wounds.
When French soldiers did not find enough women somewhere, they also raped boys. There were so many horrible events, such as that of a sixteen-year-old girl held captive in a country house, and raped by a squad of soldiers. As a result, she died a week later.
Doctors who treated some surviving victims reported anal lacerations and injured vocal cords due to forced penetration for oral sex.
The French Soldiers also broke many women’s teeth to prevent those women from biting their penises when those women were forced to practice oral sex.
There were massive infections of sexually transmitted diseases like gonorrhea or syphilis.
These rapes produced many pregnancies, and some of the underage girls also became pregnant.
The Mayor of Esperia said that in his locality, in one of the many attacks, 700 women were raped by 2,500 inhabitants.
Although there was no exact data on how many women were raped in total.
The associations of victims assured that cases were no less than 20,000. Although, some other sources estimated that cases were actually no less than 60,000.
The actual total figure could have been much higher than the degree of responsibility of the French High Command in the monstrous.
General Juin had been charged for authorizing soldiers to rape and plunder for 50 hours as a reward. Because of his contribution to the battle, it had not been proven. But they were responsible for the omission or negligence.
When the war came to an end, a leaflet was circulated written in Frech and Arabic with a message for the soldiers — Soldiers! This is the time to have freedom in your hands and more victory than winning the battle. Behind your enemy, there are their women, their houses filled with wine and gold. So kill every foe of yours, and all of that will be yours. Nobody will question you for what you do!!
Before the protests of Pope Pius XII, General de Gaulle, the French command judged in its courts to sentence 160 soldiers.
Some reports claimed that they had executed 215, but most of the soldiers remained without punishment.
This havoc and horrifying tragedy of Italy is known in Italy as Marocchinate.
A Marocchinate inspires a famous novel, and even a movie was made for the cinema.
The film starring Sophia Loren has also been remembered with a beautiful and sad Monument representing a mother trying to protect her daughter from rapists.
References-
https://networks.h-net.org/node/28765/pages/31931/moroccan-troops-wwii
https://stichting-liberation-route-europe.instantmagazine.com/libre-magazine-1/libre-7/goumiers/
