Allied crime at Monte Cassino. Goumieres: Berbers of Morocco in French military service

"Let me tell you about one group of victims - actual victims - of World War II that you have never heard of for the same reason. In May 1944, the Allies - the forces of "democracy" and "equality", the anti-Nazi and pro-Jewish forces - finally managed to capture Monte Cassino, in central Italy, from the German army, after they had bombed the 6th century monastery of Monte Cassino into ruins. The Allies included Moroccan troops. Even then they wanted "diversity" in their armed forces. The Moroccans were worthless soldiers, but these notorious sadists had no equal in killing prisoners after the end of the battles. They also differed in their rape of civilians. That night, after the end of the battle for Monte Cassino and the orderly withdrawal of the Germans, a division of Moroccan soldiers - 12,000 Moroccans - broke from their camp and, like locusts, descended on a group of mountain villages in the vicinity of Monte Cassino. They raped all the women and girls they could find in these villages - their number is estimated at 3,000 women, ranging in age from 11 to 86 years. They killed 800 male villagers who were trying to protect their women. They raped some women to such an extent that more than 100 of them died from it.

The inhabitants of these mountain villages are descended from the ancient "Volshi", one of the tribes of pre-Roman Italy, and their women are distinguished by their taller stature and gracefulness compared with other women in that part of Italy. Moroccan soldiers selected the most beautiful girls for gang rape and long lines of dark-skinned Moroccans lined up in front of each of them waiting their turn while other Moroccans held the victims. Two sisters, 15 and 18 years old, were raped by over 200 Moroccans each. One of them died from these rapes. Another has spent the last 53 years in a mental hospital. Moroccans also raped boys in villages. They also destroyed most of the buildings in these villages and stole everything of any value.

It is interesting to note that most of the historical works on the Battle of Monte Cassino published after the war make no mention of this action by our gallant colored North African allies. Even official history, published by the US Department of Defense, does not say what was done to the residents of these mountain villages. Jewish politics during and after the war was to ignore any atrocities committed by people on their side - unless they could attribute them to their enemies. For example, murder by firing squads of Jewish people belonging to the Soviet secret police [NKVD – Note. translated], 15.000 Polish officers and intellectuals in 1940 was attributed to the Germans after the advancing German army discovered the corpses of several thousand victims in the Katyn Forest. Even years after the end of the war, many elements of the controlled media continued to repeat these lies about German guilt for the Katyn massacres. Jewish control of the media made this task easy.

And, of course, reports of atrocities committed against Germans by Soviet troops during and after the war were also suppressed. Soviet propaganda commissar Ilya Ehrenburg deliberately incited the horrendous mass rape of German women and girls, and the mass murder of German civilians and prisoners of war. This angry Jewish commissar openly called on the Red Army to rape German women and kill German civilians, including children. And they did. But of course Hollywood never made films about these horrendous atrocities. And, to my knowledge, none of the heirs of the Polish, German or Italian victims of the pro-Jewish Allies have made claims for compensation against the Allied governments."

"In addition, "At the end of 1943, the Montecassino monastery was included in the defensive system of the Gustav Line, however, the monastery itself, by order of Marshal Albert Casselring, was not fortified and German-Italian troops were not stationed there. This was done to save the monastery from Allied bombing, which would certainly follow if Monte Cassino was turned into a stronghold. However, the efforts of the Bavarian Kasselring were in vain; the Allies subjected the monastery to a three-day massive bombardment by aircraft and artillery, completely destroying the oldest monastery in Europe. Only one crypt has survived, in which the remains of St. Benedict of Nursia and St. Scholastica were kept."

The day after the battle, Moroccan Gumières from the French Expeditionary Force began to roam the surrounding hills, pillaging and pillaging local villages. Multiple crimes were committed against the local population, including rape (including of boys), murder and torture. These crimes became known in Italy as "Morocchinat" - "actions committed by Moroccans."

How French generals provoked terror of civilians in Italy

The notoriety of the “main rapists” of the Second World War among the troops of the Western Allies was assigned to the French colonial troops, recruited from natives of the North and West Africa. As is known, back in the 19th century, France began to form the first units, and then larger formations, staffed by residents of the territories of modern Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Senegal, Mali, and Mauritania. "Senegalese shooters", spagi, zouaves, goumiers - that's all of them. Children of the sands of the Sahara, the Atlas mountains and the savannahs of the Sahel took part in many of France's wars, including two world wars.

“War with women” (“guerra al femminile”) - this is what many modern Italian sources call the entry of Moroccan units into Italy. By the time the Allies deployed fighting on Italian soil, Italy has practically withdrawn from the war. Soon, Mussolini's regime fell, and resistance to the Allies continued to be provided mainly by German units located on Italian territory. In addition to the Anglo-American troops, units of the French army, staffed by Africans, also entered Italy. They were the ones who caused the greatest horror. But not against the enemy, but against the local civilian population. This was the second coming of natives of the distant Maghreb to Italian soil - after the medieval landings of “Barbarian” pirates on the Mediterranean coast of Italy and France, when entire villages were empty, and their inhabitants were taken in thousands to the slave markets of the Maghreb and Turkey.

The French Expeditionary Force, which entered the territory of Italy, included regiments of Moroccan Gumers. Previously they fought in North Africa- against Italian and German troops in Libya, and then were transferred to Europe. Units of the Moroccan Gumiers were at the operational disposal of the command of the American 1st Infantry Division. Here we should say a little about who the Moroccan Gumiers are and why the French command needed them.

In 1908, when French troops colonized Morocco, the commander of the expeditionary army, Brigadier General Albert Amad, proposed recruiting people from the Berber tribes of the Atlas Mountains for military service. In 1911 they were given official status military units French army. At first, the Gumer units were staffed according to the principle familiar to colonial troops - Frenchmen, most often transferred from Algerian units, were appointed officers, and Moroccans occupied soldier and sergeant positions. France most actively used the Gumiers in the war to establish a protectorate over Morocco. Over 22 thousand Moroccans participated on the side of France in the colonization of their homeland, 12 thousand of them died in battle. However, there have always been many people willing to enroll in French military service in Morocco. For young men from poor peasant families, this was a good chance to receive “full board” in the form of a good salary, food, and uniform by Moroccan standards.

In November 1943, Gumer units were sent to mainland Italy. Using Moroccan units, the Allied command was guided by several considerations. Firstly, in this way, the losses of the European units themselves were reduced by attracting Africans. Secondly, the Moroccan regiments were recruited mainly from among the inhabitants of the Atlas Mountains, who were better suited for fighting in mountainous conditions. Thirdly, the cruelty of the Moroccans was also a kind of psychological weapon: the fame of the “exploits” of the Gumiers went far ahead of them.

Among the Allied forces, the Gumiers, perhaps, held the palm in the number of crimes against civilians on Italian territory. This was also not surprising. The mentality of African warriors - people of a different culture and a different faith - played a very important role. People from the Maghreb found themselves in a position where they were a force against an unarmed and defenseless local population. A large number of white women for whom no one could stand up, and yet many Gumiers, apart from prostitutes, had no women at all in their lives - the majority entered military service as single men. In addition, in the Gumer regiments, discipline was traditionally at a much lower level than in other units and formations of the allied armies. The junior command staff, recruited from Moroccans, themselves had exactly the same mentality as ordinary soldiers, and the few French officers could not fully control the situation, as they were afraid of their own subordinates. And, needless to say, many of them turned a blind eye to the soldiers’ atrocities, believing that this was what the vanquished had to do.

The Allied campaign to capture Monte Cassino in Central Italy, which took place in May 1944, became widely known. Italian historians claim that the capture of Monte Cassino was accompanied by many crimes against civilians. Many soldiers of the allied forces performed them, but it was the Moroccan gumiers who “distinguished themselves” especially. Historians claim that the Gumers raped all women and girls aged 11 to 80 in local villages and villages. The Gumiers did not disdain even very old women; they often raped very young girls, as well as boys and male teenagers. Approximately 800 Italian men who tried to protect their female relatives from rape were brutally murdered by Moroccan Gumiers. Mass rapes caused real epidemics of venereal diseases, since native soldiers often suffered from them themselves, having become infected at one time from prostitutes.

Of course, the rapists themselves are to blame for atrocities against civilians. History has not preserved the names of most of them, and almost all of them are no longer alive in our time. But responsibility for the behavior of the Gumiers cannot be removed from the allied command, first of all, from the leadership of Fighting France. It was the French command that decided to use African units on European soil, being well aware of how Africans from the colonies treated Europeans. For the Gumiers and other similar units, the war in Europe was someone else’s war; it was seen only as a way to earn money, as well as to rob and rape the local population with impunity. The French command knew this very well. The behavior of the Gumiers could not be justified by any revenge on the vanquished - unlike the Nazis, who committed atrocities on Soviet soil, killing and raping Soviet people, the Italians did not terrorize Morocco and Moroccans, did not kill the families of the Gumiers and had nothing to do with Morocco at all.

Marshal of France Alphonse Juin (1888-1967). The name of this man, a veteran of the First and Second World Wars, is showered not only with honors, but also with curses. It is he who is called one of the main people responsible for the crimes of the colonial troops in Italy. Marshal Juin is credited with famous words addressed to his subordinates:

“Soldiers! You are not fighting for the freedom of your land. This time I tell you: if you win the battle, you will have the best houses, women and wine in the world. But not a single German should be left alive. I say this and I will keep my promise. Fifty hours after victory you will be absolutely free in your actions. No one will punish you later, no matter what you do.”

In fact, with these words, Alphonse Juin authorized violence and blessed the Moroccan Gumiers to commit numerous crimes against civilians. But, unlike the illiterate inhabitants of distant African mountains and deserts, Alphonse Juin was a European, sort of cultured person, With higher education, a representative of the elite of French society. And the fact that he not only covered up violence (this could be understood - reputation and all that), but openly called for it even before it began, indicates that the French generals were not far from their opponents - Hitler's executioners.

Monte Cassino was given over to the Moroccan Gumiers for plunder for three days. What was happening in the surrounding area is difficult to describe in words. The famous novel by the world famous Italian writer Alberto Moravia “Ciochara” is dedicated, among other things, to the terrible events of the Italian Allied campaign. It is now impossible to count how many human tragedies were associated with the actions of the Gumiers.

True, we must pay tribute to the Allied command, sometimes punishments still followed for crimes committed by the Gumiers. Some French generals and officers retained their human qualities and dignity and tried with all their might to put an end to the lawlessness committed by the soldiers of the African troops. Thus, 160 criminal cases were opened regarding crimes against the local population, involving 360 military personnel, mainly from the Moroccan Gumer regiments. There were even several death sentences handed down. But this is a drop in the sea of ​​blood and tears caused by Moroccan soldiers.

In 2011, the president of the National Association of Victims of Marocchinate (that is what the Italians call those events) Emiliano Ciotti shed light on the scale of the tragedy of the war years. Only registered cases of violence, according to him, were about 20 thousand. However, according to modern estimates, at least 60 thousand Italian women were raped. In the vast majority of cases, rapes were of a group nature, with 2-3-4 people taking part in them, but there were also rapes of women by 100 and even 300 soldiers. Murders of rape victims were not uncommon. For example, on May 27, 1944, a 17-year-old girl was raped by several Gumiers in Valecorse, after which she was shot. There were a lot of such cases.

Pope Pius XII, aware of the horrors taking place, personally addressed General Charles de Gaulle, but the leader of Fighting France did not honor the pontiff with his response. The American command offered the French generals their own method of combating rape - to have regimental prostitutes, but this proposal was not accepted. When the war was over, the French command hastily withdrew the Moroccan regiments from Italy, obviously fearing wide publicity and trying to hide traces of most of the crimes committed.

On August 1, 1947, two years after the end of World War II, Italy sent an official note of protest to the French government. However, the French leadership did not take serious measures to punish the perpetrators and limited themselves to standard phrases. There was no proper reaction to repeated appeals from Italy in 1951 and 1993. Although the crimes were committed directly by Gumiers - immigrants from Morocco, France still bears responsibility for them. It was the French marshals and generals, including not only Alphonse Juin, who in fairness should have answered for this in court, but also Charles de Gaulle, who let the genie out of the bottle.

When talking about the horrors and atrocities of the Second World War, as a rule, we mean the acts of the Nazis. Torture of prisoners, concentration camps, genocide, extermination of civilians - the list of Nazi atrocities is inexhaustible.
However, one of the most terrible pages in the history of World War II was written in it by units of the Allied troops who liberated Europe from the Nazis. The French, and in fact the Moroccan expeditionary force received the title of the main scumbags of this war.

Several regiments of Moroccan Gumières fought as part of the French Expeditionary Force. Berbers, representatives of the native tribes of Morocco, were recruited into these units. The French army used Goumieres in Libya during World War II, where they fought Italian forces in 1940. Moroccan Gumiers also took part in the battles in Tunisia, which took place in 1942-1943.
In 1943, Allied troops landed in Sicily. Moroccan gumiers were placed at the disposal of the 1st American Infantry Division by order of the allied command. Some of them took part in the battles for the liberation of the island of Corsica from the Nazis. By November 1943, Moroccan soldiers were redeployed to the Italian mainland, where in May 1944 they crossed the Avrounque Mountains. Subsequently, regiments of Moroccan Gumiers took part in the liberation of France, and at the end of March 1945 they were the first to break into Germany from the Siegfried Line.

Why did the Moroccans go to fight in Europe?

The Gumiers rarely went into battle for reasons of patriotism - Morocco was under the protectorate of France, but they did not consider it their homeland. The main reason the prospect was decent by the standards of the country wages, increasing military prestige, showing loyalty to the heads of their clans who sent soldiers to fight.

The Gumer regiments were often recruited from the poorest inhabitants of the Maghreb, the mountaineers. Most of them were illiterate. French officers had to play the role of wise advisers with them, replacing the authority of the tribal leaders.

How the Moroccan Gumiers fought

At least 22,000 Moroccan nationals took part in the battles of World War II. The permanent strength of the Moroccan regiments reached 12,000 people, with 1,625 soldiers killed in action and 7,500 wounded.

According to some historians, Moroccan warriors performed well in mountain battles, finding themselves in familiar surroundings. The homeland of the Berber tribes is the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, so the Gumiers tolerated transitions to the highlands well.

Other researchers are categorical: the Moroccans were average warriors, but they managed to surpass even the Nazis in the brutal killing of prisoners. The Gumiers could not and did not want to give up the ancient practice of cutting off the ears and noses of the corpses of enemies. But the main horror of the settlements into which the Moroccan soldiers entered was mass rape civilians.

Liberators became rapists

The first news about the rape of Italian women by Moroccan soldiers was recorded on December 11, 1943, the day the Humiers landed in Italy. It was about four soldiers. French officers were unable to control the actions of the Gumiers. Historians note that "these were the first echoes of the behavior that would later be long associated with the Moroccans."

Already in March 1944, during de Gaulle’s first visit to the Italian front, local residents turned to him with an urgent request to return the Gumiers to Morocco. De Gaulle promised to involve them only as carabinieri to protect public order.

On May 17, 1944, American soldiers in one of the villages heard the desperate screams of raped women. According to their testimony, the Gumiers repeated what the Italians did in Africa. However, the allies were really shocked: the British report speaks of rapes by Gumiers right on the streets of women, little girls, teenagers of both sexes, as well as prisoners in prisons.

Moroccan horror at Monte Cassino

One of the most terrible deeds of the Moroccan Gumers in Europe is the story of the liberation of Monte Cassino from the Nazis. The Allies managed to capture this ancient abbey of central Italy on May 14, 1944. After their final victory at Cassino, the command announced “fifty hours of freedom” - the south of Italy was given over to the Moroccans for three days.

Historians testify that after the battle, Moroccan Gumiers committed brutal pogroms in the surrounding villages. All the girls and women were raped, and even the teenage boys were not saved. Records from the German 71st Division record 600 rapes of women in the small town of Spigno in just three days.

More than 800 men were killed while trying to save their relatives, friends or neighbors. The pastor of the town of Esperia tried in vain to protect three women from the violence of Moroccan soldiers - the Gumeras tied the priest up and raped him all night, after which he soon died. The Moroccans also plundered and carried away everything that had any value.

The Moroccans chose the most beautiful girls for gang rape. Queues of gumiers lined up at each of them, wanting to have fun, while other soldiers held the unfortunate ones back. Thus, two young sisters, 18 and 15 years old, were raped by more than 200 gumiers each. The younger sister died from injuries and ruptures, the eldest went crazy and was kept in a psychiatric hospital for 53 years until her death.

War on women

In the historical literature about the Apennine Peninsula, the time from the end of 1943 to May 1945 is called guerra al femminile - “the war on women.” During this period, French military courts initiated 160 criminal proceedings against 360 individuals. Death sentences and heavy punishments were imposed. In addition, many rapists who were taken by surprise were shot at the scene of the crime.

In Sicily, the Gumiers raped everyone they could capture. Partisans in some regions of Italy stopped fighting the Germans and began saving the surrounding villages from the Moroccans. Great amount forced abortions and infections with sexually transmitted diseases had dire consequences for many small villages in the regions of Lazio and Tuscany.

The Italian writer Alberto Moravia wrote his most famous novel, Ciociara, in 1957, based on what he saw in 1943, when he and his wife were hiding in Ciociara (a locality in the Lazio region). Based on the novel, the film “Chochara” (in English release - “Two Women”) was shot in 1960 with Sophia Loren in the title role. The heroine and her young daughter, on the way to liberated Rome, stop to rest in the church of a small town. There they are attacked by several Moroccan Gumiers, who rape both of them.

Victim Testimonies

On April 7, 1952, testimonies from numerous victims were heard in the lower house of the Italian Parliament. Thus, the mother of 17-year-old Malinari Vella spoke about the events of May 27, 1944 in Valecorse: “We were walking along Monte Lupino Street and saw Moroccans. The soldiers were clearly attracted to young Malinari. We begged not to touch us, but they didn’t listen to anything. Two of them held me, the rest raped Malinari in turns. When the last one finished, one of the soldiers took out a pistol and shot my daughter.”

Elisabetta Rossi, 55, from the Farneta area, recalled: “I tried to protect my daughters, aged 18 and 17, but I was stabbed in the stomach. Bleeding, I watched as they were raped. A five-year-old boy, not understanding what was happening, rushed towards us. They fired several bullets into his stomach and threw him into a ravine. The next day the child died.”

Morocchinate

The atrocities that the Moroccan Gumiers committed in Italy for several months were given the name marocchinate by Italian historians - a derivative of the name of the home country of the rapists.

On October 15, 2011, the President of the National Association of Victims of Marocchinate, Emiliano Ciotti, assessed the scale of the incident: “From the numerous documents collected today, it is known that there have been at least 20,000 registered cases of violence. This number still does not reflect the truth - medical reports from those years report that two thirds of women raped, out of shame or modesty, chose not to report anything to the authorities. Taking a comprehensive assessment, we can confidently say that at least 60,000 women have been raped. On average, North African soldiers raped them in groups of two or three, but we also have testimonies from women raped by 100, 200 and even 300 soldiers,” Ciotti said.

Consequences

After the end of World War II, Moroccan gumiers were urgently returned to Morocco by the French authorities. On August 1, 1947, the Italian authorities sent an official protest to the French government. The answer was formal replies. The problem was raised again by the Italian leadership in 1951 and 1993. The question remains open to this day.

However, one of the most terrible pages in the history of World War II was written in it by units of the Allied troops who liberated Europe from the Nazis. The French, and in fact the Moroccan expeditionary force received the title of the main scumbags of this war.

Several regiments of Moroccan Gumières fought as part of the French Expeditionary Force. Berbers, representatives of the native tribes of Morocco, were recruited into these units. The French army used Goumieres in Libya during World War II, where they fought Italian forces in 1940. Moroccan Gumiers also took part in the battles in Tunisia, which took place in 1942-1943.

In 1943, Allied troops landed in Sicily. Moroccan gumiers were placed at the disposal of the 1st American Infantry Division by order of the allied command. Some of them took part in the battles for the liberation of the island of Corsica from the Nazis. By November 1943, Moroccan soldiers were redeployed to the Italian mainland, where in May 1944 they crossed the Avrounque Mountains. Subsequently, regiments of Moroccan Gumiers took part in the liberation of France, and at the end of March 1945 they were the first to break into Germany from the Siegfried Line.

Why were they sent to fight in Europe?

The Gumiers rarely went into battle for reasons of patriotism - Morocco was under the protectorate of France, but they did not consider it their homeland. The main reason was the prospect of decent wages by the standards of the country, increased military prestige, and the manifestation of loyalty to the heads of their clans, who sent soldiers to fight.

The Gumer regiments were often recruited from the poorest inhabitants of the Maghreb, the mountaineers. Most of them were illiterate. French officers had to play the role of wise advisers with them, replacing the authority of the tribal leaders.

How they fought

At least 22,000 Moroccan nationals took part in the battles of World War II. The permanent strength of the Moroccan regiments reached 12,000 people, with 1,625 soldiers killed in action and 7,500 wounded.

According to some historians, Moroccan warriors performed well in mountain battles, finding themselves in familiar surroundings. The homeland of the Berber tribes is the Moroccan Atlas Mountains, so the Gumiers tolerated transitions to the highlands well.

Other researchers are categorical: the Moroccans were average warriors, but they managed to surpass even the Nazis in the brutal killing of prisoners. The Gumiers could not and did not want to give up the ancient practice of cutting off the ears and noses of the corpses of enemies. But the main horror of the populated areas that Moroccan soldiers entered was the mass rape of civilians.

Rapists

The first news about the rape of Italian women by Moroccan soldiers was recorded on December 11, 1943, the day the Humiers landed in Italy. It was about four soldiers. French officers were unable to control the actions of the Gumiers. Historians note that "these were the first echoes of the behavior that would later be long associated with the Moroccans."

Already in March 1944, during de Gaulle’s first visit to the Italian front, local residents turned to him with an urgent request to return the Gumiers to Morocco. De Gaulle promised to involve them only as carabinieri to protect public order.

On May 17, 1944, American soldiers in one of the villages heard the desperate screams of raped women. According to their testimony, the Gumiers repeated what the Italians did in Africa. However, the allies were really shocked: the British report speaks of rapes by Gumiers right on the streets of women, little girls, teenagers of both sexes, as well as prisoners in prisons.

Horror at Monte Cassino

One of the most terrible deeds of the Moroccan Gumers in Europe is the story of the liberation of Monte Cassino from the Nazis. The Allies managed to capture this ancient abbey of central Italy on May 14, 1944. After their final victory at Cassino, the command announced “fifty hours of freedom” - the south of Italy was given over to the Moroccans for three days.

Historians testify that after the battle, Moroccan Gumiers committed brutal pogroms in the surrounding villages. All the girls and women were raped, and even the teenage boys were not saved. Records from the German 71st Division record 600 rapes of women in the small town of Spigno in just three days.

More than 800 men were killed while trying to save their relatives, friends or neighbors. The pastor of the town of Esperia tried in vain to protect three women from the violence of Moroccan soldiers - the Gumiers tied the priest up and raped him all night, after which he soon died. The Moroccans also plundered and carried away everything that had any value.

The Moroccans chose the most beautiful girls for gang rape. Queues of gumiers lined up at each of them, wanting to have fun, while other soldiers held the unfortunate ones back. Thus, two young sisters, 18 and 15 years old, were raped by more than 200 gumiers each. The younger sister died from injuries and ruptures, the eldest went crazy and was kept in a psychiatric hospital for 53 years until her death.

In the historical literature about the Apennine Peninsula, the time from the end of 1943 to May 1945 is called guerra al femminile - “the war on women.” During this period, French military courts initiated 160 criminal proceedings against 360 individuals. Death sentences and heavy punishments were imposed. In addition, many rapists who were taken by surprise were shot at the scene of the crime.

In Sicily, the Gumiers raped everyone they could capture. Partisans in some regions of Italy stopped fighting the Germans and began saving the surrounding villages from the Moroccans. The huge number of forced abortions and infections with sexually transmitted diseases had terrible consequences for many small villages and hamlets in the regions of Lazio and Tuscany.

The Italian writer Alberto Moravia wrote his most famous novel, Ciociara, in 1957, based on what he saw in 1943, when he and his wife were hiding in Ciociara (a locality in the Lazio region). Based on the novel, the film “Chochara” (in English release – “Two Women”) was shot in 1960 with Sophia Loren in the title role. The heroine and her young daughter, on the way to liberated Rome, stop to rest in the church of a small town. There they are attacked by several Moroccan Gumiers, who rape both of them.

Evidence

On April 7, 1952, testimonies from numerous victims were heard in the lower house of the Italian Parliament. Thus, the mother of 17-year-old Malinari Vella spoke about the events of May 27, 1944 in Valecorse: “We were walking along Monte Lupino Street and saw Moroccans. The soldiers were clearly attracted to young Malinari. We begged not to touch us, but they didn’t listen to anything. Two of them held me, the rest raped Malinari in turns. When the last one finished, one of the soldiers took out a pistol and shot my daughter.”

Elisabetta Rossi, 55, from the Farneta area, recalled: “I tried to protect my daughters, aged 18 and 17, but I was stabbed in the stomach. Bleeding, I watched as they were raped. A five-year-old boy, not understanding what was happening, rushed towards us. They fired several bullets into his stomach and threw him into a ravine. The next day the child died.”

Morocchinate

The atrocities that the Moroccan Gumiers committed in Italy for several months were given the name marocchinate by Italian historians, a derivative of the name of the home country of the rapists.

On October 15, 2011, the President of the National Association of Victims of Marocchinate, Emiliano Ciotti, assessed the scale of the incident: “From the numerous documents collected today, it is known that there have been at least 20,000 registered cases of violence. This number still does not reflect the truth - medical reports from those years report that two thirds of women raped, out of shame or modesty, chose not to report anything to the authorities. Taking a comprehensive assessment, we can confidently say that at least 60,000 women have been raped. On average, North African soldiers raped them in groups of two or three, but we also have testimonies from women raped by 100, 200 and even 300 soldiers,” Ciotti said.

After the end of World War II, Moroccan gumiers were urgently returned to Morocco by the French authorities. On August 1, 1947, the Italian authorities sent an official protest to the French government. The answer was formal replies. The problem was raised again by the Italian leadership in 1951 and 1993. The question remains open to this day.

The main rapists of the end of World War II May 9th, 2016

Moroccan Mountain Corps of the French Expeditionary Force at Monte Cassino

In the last post I told you, . The attempt to discredit Soviet soldiers and turn them into a savage horde did not appear out of nowhere. Soviet soldiers they fought bravely, bore the burden of war for four years, and it was they who broke the neck of fascism by taking Berlin.

At the same time, there were those who did not particularly show themselves in anything other than atrocities against the civilian population.

France held out against Nazi Germany in World War II for just over one month. The collaborationist Vichy regime went over to the side of the Germans, but not everyone followed his example; the battle for the colonies began, during which the “Gumiers” - Moroccan soldiers - found themselves on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition.

As warriors, the Gumiers showed themselves to be mediocre.

Gumier sharpens a bayonet.

But they perfectly compensated for this with “bravery” in atrocities against the civilian population. The Gumiers first showed themselves after the battle of Monte Cassino.

Gumiers on the march in their traditional Berber clothing.

On the night after the end of the battle for Monte Cassino, the Moroccan division of 12,000 Gumiers broke away from its camp and descended on a group of surrounding mountain villages.

They raped everyone they could find in them. The number of women raped between the ages of 11 and 86 is estimated at 3,000. The Moroccans killed about 800 men who tried to stop them. Several hundred women who were raped were killed.

The Gumiers raped the most beautiful girls in droves. For example, two sisters, 15 and 18 years old, were raped by over 200 Moroccans. One of them died immediately from these rapes. Another went crazy and spent the rest of her life in a psychiatric clinic.

The crimes of the Gumiers in Italy received a special name: “Morocchinat” and are reflected in the film by Ciochar.

The next place where the Gumiers became famous was Stuttgart, which French soldiers took without a fight on April 21, 1945.

During one day of the Humiers' stay in Stuttgart, 1198 cases of rape of German women were registered! For comparison, the prosecutor of the 1st Belorussian Front registered 72 of them from April 22 to May 5. Native soldiers broke into the underground tram parking lot, which served as a bomb shelter, and robbed and raped for 5 days.

The crime of the Gumiers received wide resonance after Senator James Eastland, who returned from a trip to post-war Europe, announced it in the US Senate on July 17, 1945. The French side immediately declared Eastland's lies, but Monte Cassino's numerous testimony and experience were on the senator's side.

The savage cruelty of African soldiers cannot be attributed to revenge for the atrocities of the Nazis. They simply acted as their animal instincts told them and as their command allowed. 70 years later in tolerant Europe they are trying not to remember this, it’s a painfully dark chapter of the war, and it’s not in trend, it’s easier to blame everything on the “Russian barbarians.”