Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi on
Thursday slammed critics who chided her for being on a skiing
holiday rather than at the annual commemoration of the WWII
Ardeatine Caves massacre, recalling that "it was the first place
(I) visited when I became mayor" in June. "Profiteering against
me doesn't stop even in front of the value of Memory," tweeted
the mayor, who was advised by doctors to take a break from her
stressful job. Officials including President Sergio Mattarella
attended the commemoration of the 73rd anniversary of the 1944
massacre, laying a wreath at the site on Rome's southern
outskirts where 335 Italians were executed. The massacre at
Fosse Ardeatine was carried out by Nazi officers in a reprisal
for a partisan attack that killed 33 German soldiers in central
Rome on a street near the Trevi Fountain. In retaliation, for
every one German killed, the army seized 10 Italians including
civilians as well as numerous political prisoners and Jews who
were in custody, plus five more who were also executed.
Both men and boys were executed and their bodies dumped in
the caves where the memorial is now located.
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