THE ARDEATINE CAVES ITALY

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The Ardeatine Caves are south of Rome. It was here that 335 Italians were massacred by the Nazis following the killing of 33 SS Soldiers by the Communist Partisans in Via Rasella. The murdered Italians were piled up in the caves and the entrance was blown up by the Nazis. There is a small museum here, and there are the tombs of the victims who were painstakingly removed from the pit, identified and reburied, Many resistance heroes are amongst the dead, but there are also people who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when the Nazis were ordered directly by Adolf Hitler to shoot ten Italians for every German. The film Massacre in Rome with Richard Burton is about this event.

Ardeatine Caves Entrance Rome
The entrance to the Ardeatine Caves
Ardeatine Caves Tombs Rome
The tombs of the victims of the massacre.