"My mother and another mother begged for mercy for the newborn babies in their arms, but they were shot immediately," said Adele Pardini, who is sitting in a church in the Tuscan mountain village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema alongside her sister Siria, telling a group of German and Italian 17- to 26-year-olds about the massacre they survived there on August 12, 1944.

Siria, 8 years old at the time, was walking away from the village with her father and three siblings to care for livestock the family kept in an olive grove. The village's men left as the Nazi-SS soldiers approached, fearing that they would be used for forced labor. They were, however, confident that nothing would happen to the women and children left at home.

Read more: 75 years ago: Nazis carry out mass murder of Sinti and Roma people in Auschwitz

Adele who was, 5 at the time, was with the 25 to 30 women, children and elderly still in Sant'Anna di Stazzema when the Nazi troops arrived. Soldiers ordered them to line up by height along the wall of a house. "I was one of the smallest," Adele recounted. Then the soldiers began firing with pistols and machine guns.

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After watching her mother and others fall to the ground, she felt a door open behind her, and an older sister, Cesira, pulled her and another sister into the animal stall on the other side of the wall.

Adele Pardini offered the visiting Italians and Germans sweets and comfort

The German soldiers then lit the entire village on fire, Adele said, adding that they were singing as they marched away from what would later be deemed a war crime

"To get out of the house, I had to walk over my mother because she was lying in the doorway," Adele said, adding that Cesira took a crying baby from their mother's arms. Anna, the youngest of the nine Pardini children, was only 20 days old when she, like her 16-year-old sister, Maria, died of her injuries.

Maria was "full of holes," Adele said. She looked at her audience, who was crying, and decided: "I think that's enough for now."

Like Adele, Siria Pardini watched the Nazi German soldiers gun down her whole family

Enrico Pieri, who survived the Nazi massacre when a girl called him over to where she was hiding, also recalled his experience.

"I was 10 years old," Pieri said. He added that "my family was my papa, mama and two sisters" — and he watched the Nazis shoot them all, as well as his grandparents, an uncle and aunts: "In three hours, they murdered 560 people."

That's the number calculated by a postwar analysis of bones and other remains. Only about 400 of the victims could be identified. Hundreds had fled to the supposedly safe mountain village to escape fighting in the surrounding area.

Sant'Anna di Stazzema survivors shortly after the massacre in 1944

The residents of Sant'Anna di Stazzema opened the doors of their homes, school and church to the refugees. It was difficult to feed so many people, said Enio Mancini, another survivor. As a 6-year-old at the time, he initially appreciated all of the new playmates.

On August 12, a Nazi soldier forced the Mancini family out of their house and told them to run toward the mountains, yelling "Schnell, Schnell," the 81-year-old said, using the German word for "fast." As they ran, Mancini said, they heard shots. When he turned he saw the soldier shooting into the air.

Pieri was 10 on the day that the Nazis shot and killed his entire family

'A mass grave'

Until that day, World War II had felt far away for the residents of Sant'Anna di Stazzema.

Read more: Memory of German massacre 'very present'

"Then I saw the burned bodies, and the smell of burnt flesh was everywhere," Mancini said. "That's when I really understood."

The struggle to survive continued after the end of the war and being a playful child was impossible.

Mancini shows a participant how the soldier fired in the air behind him

"Our mother would yell, 'You can't play here: So-and-so was murdered here' or "You can't play there: It's a mass grave,'" Mancini said. It was not until five years later, when he left the village for a boarding school in Switzerland, that the nightmares of the massacre finally stopped.

Read more: "A Day of Shame" for Germany

At first, there was a lot of hatred for Germans, Mancini and Pieri said. No one talked about the massacre, and it took 60 years before Italy held a trial. Ten surviving Nazi officers were found guilty in absentia and sentenced to spend the rest of their lives in prison. Germany declined to extradite. Another officer was found guilty of crimes against humanity for his role in a massacre at a different Italian village and sentenced to life in prison.

But hate doesn't help you move on, the survivors said, and they refer to the perpetrators of the massacre as fascists and Nazis rather than simply Germans.

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Pieri said he hoped that through understanding "we can create a new Europe." He added, however, that the xenophobia across the European Union worries him.

"Today we are at a point where we are in danger of losing this Europe," Pieri said.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler The assassination attempt of July 20, 1944 Seventy-five years ago, a bomb exploded in the Führer's Wolf's Lair headquarters, which was supposed to kill Adolf Hitler. The assassination attempt failed; Hitler survived. The resistance fighters involved were executed in the days following the attempted coup.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Man behind the July 20 plot Claus Graf Schenk von Stauffenberg was instrumentally involved in the bomb plot of July 20, 1944. As early as 1942, the officer realized that the Second World War could no longer be won. In order to save Germany from imminent destruction, Stauffenberg and other Wehrmacht officers decided to overthrow the Hitler regime.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Kreisau Circle Fundamental political reform in Germany was the goal of the Kreisau Circle. Helmuth James Graf von Moltke and Peter Graf Yorck von Wartenburg (pictured) were the driving forces behind the movement. Some members of the Circle joined the July 20 plot in 1944 and were tried and sentenced to death after the assassination attempt failed.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Hans and Sophie Scholl Starting from 1942 a group of Munich students, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl, tried to resist the National Socialists. The group, which called itself the White Rose, distributed thousands of leaflets denouncing the crimes of the Nazi regime. In February 1943 the Gestapo found the siblings and sentenced them to death.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Attempted Hitler assassination by Georg Elser In 1939, carpenter Georg Elser fastened explosive devices behind Hitler's lectern in the Munich Bürgerbräu brewery. The bomb detonated as planned. However, since Hitler's speech was shorter than expected, he had already left the hall before the explosion. Seven people died and 60 more were injured. Elser was arrested on the same day and taken to Dachau concentration camp, where he died in 1945.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Weidt's Workshop for the Blind During the Second World War, Berlin manufacturer Otto Weidt employed mainly blind and deaf Jews. His broom and brush bindery was considered an "important defense business" and could therefore not be closed down by the Nazis. Weidt managed to provide for his Jewish employees throughout the war and protect them from deportation.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Resistance by artists and intellectuals Numerous artists and intellectuals already turned against the regime when Hitler came to power in 1933. Many who did not want to adapt or openly oppose the system fled into exile. Others, such as the Berlin cabaret group Katakombe, openly criticized the regime. In 1935 the theater was closed by the Gestapo and its founder Werner Finck was imprisoned in the Esterwegen concentration camp.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Die Swing Youth The Swing Jugend or Swing Youth, regarded the American-English way of life, represented by swing music and dance, as a clear opposition to the Nazi regime and the Hitler Youth. In August 1941 there was a wave of arrests, especially in Hamburg, of Swing Youths, many of whom were taken into custody or deported to special youth concentration camps.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler Red Orchestra resistance group The Gestapo used direction finders to track down illegal transmitters used by resistance groups. In the summer of 1942, more than 120 members of the Rote Kapelle were arrested. This group, centered around Harro Schulze-Boysen and Arvid Harnack, wanted to help Jews document the crimes of the Nazi regime and distribute leaflets. More than 50 members were sentenced to death and executed.

Known and unknown heroes: People who resisted Hitler German Resistance Memorial Center On July 19, 1953, the ceremonial unveiling of the Memorial to the German Resistance took place in Berlin in the inner courtyard of the Bendlerblock building, the place where Count Stauffenberg was executed after the failed Hitler assassination. In addition, however, the memorial also commemorates all the other courageous men and women who stood up against the Hitler regime.



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