November 1st 1943, in Conca della Campania, a tiny village in a south Italian province, 19 civilians are slaughtered by a Nazi patrol.
Graziella Di Gasparro, daughter of one of the fallen, strenuously fought for years to keep alive the memory of that forgotten massacre. The murder of Graziella's father was the brutal epilogue of the German occupation of that area. The area between Naples and Casino - the first Italian territory to be declared "Operations Zone" by the German army, after the 8th September armistice - was the first Italian territory to experience the devastating shockwave of the brutal Nazi war laws against civilians. The occupation of the political institutions, the raids on consumer goods, the rounding up and deportation of men to forced-labour camps in Germany - more than 21,000 people - and the devastation of industries, infrastructures and civilian's home are the reasons that triggered the first resistance actions organized by civilians in Italy. After the rebellion of Napoli, in Riardo, a small town few kilometres from Capua, local Partisan troops drive away the Germans from the town while institutions and citizens of Tora and Piccilli save a little Jewish community from deportation. The German reaction to the countless actions of insubordination was immediate. An insane violence hit the whole territory. The victims caused by dozens of reprisals were 752.
Caserta, in fact, is the hardest hit south Italian province by Nazi murders. The massacre of Conca della Campania, therefore, according to the thesis of the historian Giuseppe Angelone, assumes a key role to better understand the metamorphosis of the German occupation of Italy from a "tolerated" cohabitation to an aggressive and violent hegemony towards the civilian population. Graziella on November 1st 2016, after years of suffering and struggles, finally had a day of relief from her tragic family story. In fact, on the 73rd commemoration of the massacre, the German ambassador in Italy attended the institutional ceremony in order to demonstrate the commitment of German govern to reconcile the two European Countries.
