Fassari, Giuseppe: Liberators

Between September 1943 and the summer of 1947, Italy experienced years of apparent "liberation" marked by widespread violence across the country, corruption and mismanagement by the Allied Military Government (AMGOT), and the resulting impact on the civilian population. Hunger, disease, black-market activities, and aerial bombardments of Italian cities all contributed to the situation. Allied troops were responsible for thousands of crimes against innocent civilians within a climate of impunity that guaranteed them absolute control over the territory. Official estimates suggest that a total of over 23,000 Italians suffered accidents, physical and psychological violence, assaults, murders, and rapes at the hands of foreign occupation forces. In addition to the notorious *Marocchinate* (atrocities) committed by the *Goumiers* of the French Expeditionary Corps, hundreds of rapes and murders of civilians were perpetrated by American and British soldiers. Brazilian, Indian, Canadian, Polish, Greek, and New Zealand contingents were also responsible for acts of violence, including rape, murder, physical injury, assault, theft, and numerous traffic accidents.