![The black and white photograph shows two soldiers in profile on the left. Both are wearing helmets, one is standing behind the other. They are looking at a document that the one in front is holding in his hands.](/fileadmin/_processed_/3/2/csm_Panzersoldaten_der_Division_Hermann_Goering_Juli_1944_cbac5fdb1d.jpg 320w, /fileadmin/_processed_/3/2/csm_Panzersoldaten_der_Division_Hermann_Goering_Juli_1944_8db1e71fa1.jpg 480w, /fileadmin/_processed_/3/2/csm_Panzersoldaten_der_Division_Hermann_Goering_Juli_1944_b70c34e8c9.jpg 640w, /fileadmin/_processed_/3/2/csm_Panzersoldaten_der_Division_Hermann_Goering_Juli_1944_8dc18d81d1.jpg 960w, /fileadmin/_processed_/3/2/csm_Panzersoldaten_der_Division_Hermann_Goering_Juli_1944_e61d390c36.jpg 1280w, /fileadmin/_processed_/3/2/csm_Panzersoldaten_der_Division_Hermann_Goering_Juli_1944_70fec836e8.jpg 1920w, /fileadmin/_processed_/3/2/csm_Panzersoldaten_der_Division_Hermann_Goering_Juli_1944_824f6e6f06.jpg 2560w)
Fallschirm-Panzer-Division "Hermann Göring"
The division was part of the Luftwaffe. Like the Fällschirm-Jäger Divisions in the German armed forces, its recruits were young volunteers. In Italy, it was deployed in 1943 in Sicily and near Naples. In 1944, it fought near Anzio and Rome, in Umbria, and in Tuscany. In anti-partisan operations, it killed ca. 1,000 civilians, mainly in the spring and summer of 1944 in the northern Apennines and Tuscany.
The division was among the chief perpetrators of massacres in Italy; in the Nuremberg Trials, it was classified as part of the group of ‘notable offenders’. But its crimes were only investigated by legal authorities in detail in the 2000s.
- Formation
- Wehrmacht / Luftwaffe
- Army branch
- Panzer Division
- Armed force
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Wehrmacht
- Commanders
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General Paul Conrath (1940-44)
General Wilhelm Schmalz (1944-45) - Years of service
- 24 Feb. 1933 - 1935 ‘Wecke’ Police Group z.b.V. (= ‘for special deployment’), later retitled ‘Landespolizeigruppe General Göring’
- Offensive
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Scandinavia
Western Front
Eastern Front
Tunisia
Occupation of Italy (1943-45)
Western Front in Poland, White Russia and Prussia - Confirmed Massacres
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Naples Sept. 1943
Acerra
Massacre bet. Volturno and Cassino
Massaker in the Apennines (Monchio, Susano and Costrignano, Cervarolo and Civago)
Casentino massacre (Vallucciole)
Massacres of Val di Chiana and Cavriglia (Civitella, Cornia and San Pancrazio, Cavriglia)
![The black and white photograph shows five members of the "Hermann Göring" regiment standing in a row on a field. They are slightly turned towards each other in conversation. They are all wearing uniforms and caps.](/fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_58dbd0740a.jpg 320w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_506c4caf71.jpg 400w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_089c31ab73.jpg 480w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_1f5a40f809.jpg 560w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_ae0af3308b.jpg 640w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_5c88359363.jpg 800w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_be9d2a3ca7.jpg 960w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_0d3211b0a1.jpg 1120w, /fileadmin/_processed_/2/f/csm_Im_Osten_1942__Regiment__mot.__Hermann_Goering_d2c9589ee4.jpg 1280w)
Beginnings and history in the war
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The ‘Wecke Police Group’ under Göring
In 1935, in the course of the organization of the Wehrmacht, the unit was integrated into the Luftwaffe, now as the ‘General Göring’ Regiment. Over the following years, it developed into a kind of private army for Reichsmarschall Hermann Göring.
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The ‘General Göring’ Group: from the Landespolizei to the Luftwaffe
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In the war as the ‘Hermann Göring’ Panzer Division
On the front in Italy
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Withdrawal from Sicily to the mainland
On the one hand, the nature of the division’s contribution to the rescue of the Montecassino art treasures – a contribution widely exploited for propaganda purposes – was highly questionable; on the other hand the division had adopted an extraordinarily ruthless and brutal form of combat.
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Brutal warfare in Southern Italy
Alongside the 16th Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’, the ‘Hermann Göring’ Division must be considered one of the main Nazi German units responsible for the escalation of violence against the civilian population in Italy; it was guilty of the murder of at least 2,500 civilians.
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Massacres in Emilia and Tuscany
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The perpetrators in the ‘Hermann Göring’ Division
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The end of the war
In the Nuremberg trials, the division was classified as part of the group of ‘notable offenders’. In older Italian publications, the division was usually referred to as an SS unit, although it actually belonged to the special units of the Luftwaffe and thus was part of the Wehrmacht.
![The black and white photograph shows two soldiers of the "Hermann Göring" Division standing in profile on the left on a street in front of a wall. Both are wearing uniforms and helmets and are holding rifles.](/fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Valdarno_Juli_1944_Panzer-Division_Hermann_Goering__zwei_Soldaten_dc5f2092be.jpg 320w, /fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Valdarno_Juli_1944_Panzer-Division_Hermann_Goering__zwei_Soldaten_c752587c0d.jpg 480w, /fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Valdarno_Juli_1944_Panzer-Division_Hermann_Goering__zwei_Soldaten_b875841375.jpg 640w, /fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Valdarno_Juli_1944_Panzer-Division_Hermann_Goering__zwei_Soldaten_d91c1dbb18.jpg 960w, /fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Valdarno_Juli_1944_Panzer-Division_Hermann_Goering__zwei_Soldaten_f4b089c15a.jpg 1280w, /fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Valdarno_Juli_1944_Panzer-Division_Hermann_Goering__zwei_Soldaten_fbb8e22d50.jpg 1920w, /fileadmin/_processed_/8/1/csm_Valdarno_Juli_1944_Panzer-Division_Hermann_Goering__zwei_Soldaten_102e295534.jpg 2560w)
After the war
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Honours, dissimulation, and delayed reckoning
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Notable former members of the ‘Hermann Göring’ Division in East and West Germany
Literature
Carlo Gentile,
Carlo Gentile, Le stragi del 1944 in provincia di Arezzo ed i loro perpetratori (report written in connection with the preparation of application by the Bucine, Cavriglia, Civitella in Val di Chiana and Stia communes for the opening of an investigation of the division’s crimes), Cologne, 1998, available at: https://uni-koeln.academia.edu/CarloGentile
Thiele, Hans-Günther (ed.), Die
Authorship and translation
Autor: Carlo Gentile
Translated from German by: Joel Golb
© Project ‘The Massacres in Occupied Italy (1943-1945): Integrating the Perpetrators’ Memories’
2023