Trial History

The research project underscored the importance of the judiciary sources relating to the inquiries on war crimes perpetrated against civilians or unarmed partisans be-tween 1943 and 1945. In particular were considered: the minutes of the military courts trials debated after the war by Italian and allied judiciary bodies, those debated over the last twenty years and also the trials for collaboration with the Nazi carried out be-tween 1945 and 1947 by the Extraordinary Courts of Assizes (considering the charge of “help to the enemy”, these special judiciary bodies focused mostly, on the actions against the partisans) were one of the most used source to identify the perpetrators, or presumed ones, of the perpetrated violence.

The rulings, the preliminary and inquiry documentation – including reports, accounts of investigations questionings, other documents written both by German military commanders and leaders of the Italian social republic, hearing minutes, flowcharts of the units and the command structures, etc. – proved to be extremely relevant to re-trace the course of the events.