On March 24, 1944, the Fosse Ardeatine massacre took place in Rome: 335 men, aged between 15 and 74, were killed by German troops with a gunshot to the head.
The Casa della Memoria di Urbisaglia, the National Association of Partisans of Italy (ANPI), the Historical Institute of Macerata and the Foundation Giustiniani Bandini will remember the tragic event with a conference entitled “Le Fosse Ardeatine 80 years after the massacre, in memory of Odoardo Della Torre” to be held Friday, July 5 at 17:30 at Abbadia di Fiastra (Tolentino).
Prof. Angelo Ventrone (professor of Contemporary History at the University of Macerata and scientific advisor of the Casa della Memoria di Urbisaglia) will discuss the topic of Nazi and Fascist violence in World War II.
Dr Giovanna Salvucci (President of the Casa della Memoria di Urbisaglia) will present the biography of Odoardo Della Torre, interned in the Urbisaglia camp from June to October 1940 and killed at the Fosse Ardeatine with the other 334 political and Jewish prisoners.
Prof. Mariano Cingolani (Professor of Legal Medicine at the University of Macerata) will illustrate the problems of identifying victims in mass disasters and the value of the experience of the medical examiner Attilio Ascarelli and his team who in 1944, with an experimental technique developed specifically for the occasion, ascertained the identity of almost all the victims of the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine.
Dr Lucrezia Boari (Doctor in Forensic Sciences) will specifically treat the procedures adopted by Prof. Attilio Ascarelli that made it possible to reliably ascertain the identity of almost all the victims of the massacre of Fosse Ardeatine.
The meeting will be chaired by Prof. Lina Caraceni, professor of penitentiary law at the University of Macerata and member of the Board of Directors of the Casa della Memoria di Urbisaglia.