Raggi slams Ardeatine Caves no-show (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, March 23 - 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.