Trento under ‘Alpenvorland’
With the Italian armistice signed on 8 September 1943, the German armed forces took over the Trentino barracks and public offices, resulting in 48 deaths and 200 injuries among those who resisted. Hitler established that the territories located in north-eastern Italy (the provinces of Trento, Bolzano and Belluno) were to be united in a single administrative entity, the Alpenvorland (Operationszone Alpenvorland), subject to German authority, and entrusted to a Salzburg Gauleiter, Franz Hofer.
The cities of Udine, Gorizia, Trieste, Pola, Fiume and Ljubljana were also united, and included in the Operationszone Adriatisches Küstenland (OZAK) and assigned to another Austrian Gauleiter, Friedrich Rainer.
On September 17, 1943, Hofer appointed the Trentino lawyer Adolfo de Bertolini as commissioner-prefect of the province, and Kurt Heinricher as his advisor. Two military bodies were established: the Trentino Security Corps in Trento and the Security and Order Service in Bolzano. The Ladin municipalities of Cortina d’Ampezzo, Livinallongo and Colle Santa Lucia were detached from the district of Belluno to be joined to that of Bolzano.
After the first Anglo-American bombing on September 2, 1943, the Adige valley, and Trento in particular, was subjected to hundreds of air attacks. Despite the dangers of Nazi control, a National Liberation Committee was formed in Trento and sabotage actions began. On June 28, 1944, the SS killed 11 partisans in Riva del Garda, and Giannantonio Manci (who committed suicide to escape torture), Giuseppe Ferrandi and Gino Lubich were arrested in Trento. In August, the Resistance movement in Tesino grew and on August 12, several partisans were shot in Malga Zonta, in the Folgaria area.
On May 3 and 4, 1945, after the end of the war, the most tragic episodes are recorded in Val di Fiemme: in Ziano, partisans disarmed some retreating German soldiers and the German troops in retaliation set fire to the town and killed nine people. In Stramentizzo in Val di Fiemme, the fleeing German troops were attacked, five soldiers were killed and others were imprisoned: this town was also set on fire and about 50 civilians perished.
Elena Tonezzer
Further reading:
Andrea Di Michele, Rodolfo Taiani (edd.), La Zona d’operazione delle Prealpi nella seconda guerra mondiale, Trento, Fondazione Museo Storico del Trentino, 2009
Lorenzo Gardumi, All’ombra della svastica. La Resistenza nella zona d’Operazione delle Prealpi: Belluno, Bolzano, Trento 1943-1945, Trento, Fondazione Museo storico del Trentino, 2015
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