Ardeatine massacre

This article includes a list of general references, but it lacks sufficient corresponding inline citations. Please help to improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (January 2015) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Ardeatine massacre
Entry to caves in the Fosse Ardeatine Monument
Location	Outside Rome, Italy
Date	24 March 1944
Deaths	335
Victims	Italian political prisoners and civilians
Assailants	Albert Kesselring Herbert Kappler Erich Priebke Karl Hass Kurt Mälzer Eberhard von Mackensen Pietro Caruso Unnamed SS Unnamed SD Unnamed Gestapo
Motive	Reprisal for Via Rasella attack by Italian partisans

The Ardeatine massacre, or Fosse Ardeatine massacre (Italian: Eccidio delle Fosse Ardeatine), was a mass killing of 335 civilians and political prisoners carried out in Rome on 24 March 1944 by German occupation troops during the Second World War as a reprisal for the Via Rasella attack in central Rome against the SS Police Regiment Bozen the previous day.

Subsequently, the Ardeatine Caves site (Fosse Ardeatine)^[1] was declared a Memorial Cemetery and National Monument open daily to visitors. Every year, on the anniversary of the slaughter and in the presence of the senior officials of the Italian Republic, a solemn state commemoration is held at the monument in honour of the fallen. Each year, 335 names are called out, a simple roll call of the dead, to reinforce that 335 discrete individuals symbolise a collective entity.^[2]