Porzus

First Commemoration of Porzus Massacre (Relatives who Ascended to the Mountain Stall on Foot)

On 10 October 1943, the King of Italy, who together with his government had fled from Rome to Brindisi, declared war on Germany. Almost immediately, sporadic resistance against the Nazis began in German-occupied Italy.

In mountain valleys and towns, armed groups were formed by Italian soldiers on the run, who feared deportation to Germany as forced labourers, as well as by escaped Allied prisoners of war. Among the most active resistance groups were Communist partisan bands.

The Communist Garibaldi Brigades operated in the frontier area of north-eastern Italy, namely Friuli Venezia Giulia, and cooperated with Tito’s partisans along the Yugoslav border. The Garibaldi partisans made no secret of their support for Tito’s intention to annex the Venezia Giulia region to Yugoslavia after the war.

In contrast, the Osoppo Partisan Brigade operated under the authority of the Committee of Liberation, established to coordinate resistance to German occupation among partisan groups of differing political orientations. The Committee was composed of political parties that had gone underground following their suppression by Mussolini in 1922.

The first actions of the Osoppo Brigade focused on assisting escaped Allied prisoners of war and deserters from the Italian army. By the end of November 1944, following further Cossack and German attacks, the Garibaldi partisans withdrew east of the Isonzo River and came fully under Yugoslav control. Only a small number of Osoppo partisans remained hidden in high mountain villages beyond the reach of German and Cossack patrols.

Several Garibaldi partisans objected to Yugoslav control and defected to the Osoppo Brigade. This provoked strong hostility from both the Garibaldi leadership and the Yugoslav IX Corps. Relations with the Osoppo partisans and with British S.O.E. units supporting them rapidly deteriorated.

By February 1945, the Garibaldi command had launched an openly hostile campaign against British and American forces, threatening Allied commanders and seizing arms and funds from British troops. Their declared objective, together with that of the Yugoslavs, was the destruction of the Osoppo partisan units.

The Mountain Stall near Porzus, where the Garibaldi partisans massacred the Osovani partisans

The most infamous act resulting from this conflict occurred in the village of Porzus, on the Zuffine pre-Alpine mountain range, which today marks the border between Italy and Slovenia and overlooks the village of Ravosa. On 7 February 1945, the Garibaldi partisans lured the Osoppo partisans into a meeting at a mountain cow stall above Porzus, where they were disarmed and fourteen of them were executed.

In a highly publicised post-war trial, the Communist leader Mario Toffanin, known as “Giacca”, who had commanded the ambush, was sentenced to death. However, having fled to Yugoslavia, the sentence could not be carried out.

After the war, Toffanin benefited from the general amnesty promulgated by Palmiro Togliatti, then Minister of Justice and leader of the Italian Communist Party. He continued to live in Slovenia near the Italian border and received an Italian pension, which he personally collected in Italy. He died in Slovenia in 1999.