A Mother's Sacrifice, Sant'Anna, August 12 1944

Elements of the 2nd battalion, 35th regiment of the 16th SS Panzergrenadier Division "Reichsfuhrer SS", 91 of which were born just 18 years before, start their approach to the village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema divided in three formations. The area is surrounded by other detachments, supporting the operation as a blockade. 

The men of the village fled in the woods, as they thought the SS were coming to capture them to work in Germany or on the defenses of the Gothic line. Mostly women, children and old people remained home. That mountain area was particularly crowded, those days, because it sheltered several refugees from the coastal towns.

THE STORY OF GENNY BIBOLOTTI:

Genny Bibolotti (28) and her family were among those refugees, coming from the town of Pietrasanta to Sant'Anna. The village was formed by several, isolated, house blocks, each with a name. When they heard knocking at the door of their house in a block called Vaccareccia, Genny's father opened the door and the SS entered the house, forcing everybody into the house's barn: Genny and her two brothers, Alfio and Agostino, their parents and her 6 years old child, together with two other families. 

At the same moment, the other barns of Vaccareccia were filled with the population of Argentera, a nearby house block, just uphill. Genny, holding her son in her arms, hid him behind the barn's door, into some kind of stone niche. She sensed something wasn't right, and told the child to remain hidden and silent, whatever happened. 

Soon after Alfio and Agostino, summoned by the SS as field radio-carriers, exited the barn, the Germans started shooting inside the barns of Vaccareccia with small arms, while the flamethrowers started their work almost immediately. When the shooting was done an SS approached the door to see if someone was still alive. Genny, already wounded, desperately tried to save her son by attacking the soldier with the only weapon she had: her clogs. After one of her clogs hit the soldier in the face, she was immediately cut down as a reaction.

Her son, still hidden behind the door, from where he saw everything, was badly burned after the barn was set on fire and had to spend more than a year on a bed to fully recover. But that child, Mario Marsili, thanks to his mother's sacrifice, was the only survivor of that barn, the one who told her story. Genny Bibolotti was posthumously awarded with a Gold Medal of Civil Valor, the highest award for civilians in Italy, in 2003.

Meanwhile, what would have been known as the Sant'Anna di Stazzema Massacre continued.

Membri del secondo battaglione, 35° reggimento, 16° Divisione Panzer-Grenadier SS "Reichsfuhrer SS", 91 dei quali soltanto diciottenni, iniziano a marciare in direzione del piccolo paese di Sant'Anna di Stazzema, divisi in tre colonne, la zona circondata da un cordone di loro commilitoni a fare da sbarramento.

Gli uomini del paese sono scappati nei boschi; pensavano che le SS stessero arrivando per loro, per deportarli in Germania o ai lavori sulla Linea Gotica.