Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills
Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills Operationszone Alpenvorland | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1943–1945 | |||||||||
 The Operational Zone of the Alpine Foothills ( "OZAV" ) | |||||||||
| Capital | Bozen | ||||||||
| Government | Commissariat | ||||||||
| High Commissioner | |||||||||
• 1943–1945 | Franz Hofer | ||||||||
| History | |||||||||
| 1943 | |||||||||
| 1945 | |||||||||
| |||||||||
| Today part of | Italy | ||||||||
TheOperational Zone of the Alpine Foothills(German:Operationszone Alpenvorland(OZAV);Italian:Zona d'operazione delle Prealpi) was aNazi Germanoccupation zone in thesub-Alpineareain ItalyduringWorld War II.[1]
Origin and geography
[edit]OZAV was established on 10 September 1943 by the occupying GermanWehrmacht,as a response to theAlliedArmistice with Italyproclaimed two days earlier following theAllied invasion of Italy.It comprised the provinces ofBelluno,BolzanoandTrento.TheOperational Zone of the Adriatic Littoral,comprising the provinces ofUdine,Görz,Trieste,Pula,Rijeka,Kvarner GulfandLjubljana,was established on the same day. Both operational zones were separate from theItalian Social Republic(RSI), based inSalòonLake Garda,which governed the remainder of Italy that had not yet been occupied by the Allies.[2]
Administration
[edit]OZAV was administered by High CommissionerFranz Hofer.The zone was administered as part of theReichsgauofTirol-Vorarlberg.[3]The capital of the zone wasBolzano.Hofer wanted to amalgamate the operation zone to his Gau and thus bring forth the reunification of Tyrol and the territorial resurrection of the old Austrian crownland of Tyrol.[4]This did not take place, as Hitler wanted to show consideration for Mussolini, although the Salo government had almost zero influence in the region during German rule.[5]
The Italian influence was resisted and dismantled by the Germans, who decreed the restoration of the provincial borders of 1919 (plus the addition of Belluno), and forced the resignation of the ethnic ItalianPodestàinSouth Tyrolwho were replaced by German-speaking mayors recruited from the local population identifying with the Third Reich.[6]In September 1943, the German language was given equal status with the Italian language.[6]German andLadinnames of streets and localities were displayed alongside Italian names.[6]Fascist and Italian-language newspapers were shut down and the importing of newspapers from the RSI was banned.[6]The Fascist party was outlawed.[6]Laws were introduced limiting the immigration of Italians escaping military service from the RSI.[6]However, the Italian lira remained the legal tender.[6]
The effect of these policies was a rapid and draconian reversal of the stringent policy of Italianization which had been imposed on the region by the Italian government beginning in the early 1920s.
Military units in the region came under theBefehlshaber Operationszone Alpenvorlandcommanded byGeneral der InfanterieJoachim Witthöft,a former divisional commander in theXXVII Army Corpsof theGerman Army.
Collaboration
[edit]Primary enforcement of German regulations was performed by theSüdtiroler Ordnungsdienst[7](SOD, the "South Tyrol" civil police), which had been recruited from theADO(Arbeitsgemeinschaft der Optanten für Deutschlandor Association of Optants for Germany); it was mirrored in Trento (Trentino) by theCorpo di Sicurezza Trentino(CST) and in the Belluno province by theCorpo di Sicurezza Bellunese(CSB), both composed of people drafted from all male residents between the eighteen and fifty years of age. The SOD was also actively involved in the pursuit of the Jews and the well-known “Dableiber”(those who had chosen Italy when they were compelled to declare their allegiance), likeJosef Mayr-Nusser,Michael Gamper, Friedl Volgger, Rudolf Posch, and Josef Ferrari. Many of theDableiberwere current or former Catholic priests and were persecuted by the Germans.
Deportation of Jews from the Alpine Foothills
[edit]On 12 September 1943, almost immediately after the start of the German occupation,SS and police leaderfor the Alpine FoothillsKarl Brunnerissued an order that all Jews in the region were to be arrested.[8]Many of those from the Jewish communities in the region were deported and murdered in theextermination camps.[9][10]
The region was also home to theBolzano Transit Camp,which was active from summer 1944 until the end of the war and was used for the transit of Italian Jews to Auschwitz and other camps.[11][12]
Atrocities
[edit]The region was the scene of some of the last German atrocities during World War II. Towards the end of the war, South Tyrol saw the presence of over 70,000 German soldiers and members of the police, ready for a possible last defence. After the German surrender in Italy, celebrations of the Italian-speaking population broke out; which saw 11 people killed inMeranoon 30 April and 41 people killed at Bolzano on 3 May 1945, when Wehrmacht and SS units fired on civilians. This and the ongoing encounters between German troops and Italian partisans has been referred to as the Battle of Bolzano (Italian:Battaglia di Bolzano).[13]Blame for these killings has been laid on SS and police leader Karl Brunner,[10]but also on the chaotic circumstances on both the Italian and German side following the surrender.[13]
See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^After the German surrender,Bolzanowas put under military occupation by theUnited Nationsand given back toItalyonly in 1947 when it had become a Republic.
- ^Bresadola, Gianmarco (2004)."The Legitimising Strategies of the Nazi Administration in Northern Italy: Propaganda in the Adriatisches Küstenland".Contemporary European History.13(4): 425–451.doi:10.1017/S0960777304001882.ISSN0960-7773.JSTOR20081231.S2CID159821248.
- ^Speer, Albert (1995).Inside the Third Reich.London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. p. 420.ISBN9781842127353.
- ^Steininger, Rolf (2003).South Tyrol: a minority conflict of the twentieth century.New Brunswick, N.J., U.S.A: Transaction Publishers. p. 68.ISBN0-7658-0800-5.
- ^Steininger 2003, p. 69
- ^abcdefgSteininger 2003, p. 71
- ^Steininger 2003, p. 70
- ^Sabine Mayr (2017), "The Annihilation of the Jewish Community of Meran", in Georg Grote, Hannes Obermair (ed.),A Land on the Threshold. South Tyrolean Transformations, 1915–2015,Oxford, Bern, New York:Peter Lang,pp. 53–75,ISBN978-3-0343-2240-9
- ^"Im Güterwagon nach Auschwitz"[In a freight car to Auschwitz].Salto news portal (South Tyrol)(in German). 27 January 2018.Retrieved20 October2018.
- ^abWhitehead, Dennis (25 August 2016)."In the Shadow of Sunrise: The Secret Surrender of Italy".warfarehistorynetwork.com.Retrieved19 October2018.
- ^"BOLZANO".ANED – National Association of Italian political deportees from Nazi concentration camps. Archived fromthe originalon 10 September 2018.Retrieved10 September2018.
- ^"Bozen-Gries"(in German). Gedenkorte Europa 1939–1945.Retrieved10 September2018.
- ^ab"Bolzano, 3.05.1945"(in Italian). Atlas of Nazi and Fascist Massacres in Italy.Retrieved20 October2018.
| Authority control databases:National |
|---|
