Salvo D'Acquisto

Salvo D'Aquisto (Naples, 15 or 17 October 1920 - Torre di Palidoro, 23 September 1943) was a member of the Italian Carabinieri, awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor in memory of his heroism.

Life

Salvo D'Acquisto went to school near the Vomero quarter of Naples.

He enlisted in the Carabinieri as a volunteer in 1939 and left for Libya the next year, a few months before the start of the second world war, after being wounded in the leg, he remained with his division in the zone of operations until he contracted malaria and returned to Italy in 1942 to attend officer school. He graduated as a vice brigadier and was assigned to an outpost in Torrimpietra, a little rural center on Aurelia street not too far from Rome.

Around the 8th of September, 1943, a division of German SS troops camped near some old military installation previously in use by the Guardia di Finanza, in the vicinity of Torre di Palidoro, which fell to the territorial jurisdiction of the Torimpietra station. Here, on the twenty-second of September, German soldiers inspecting boxes of abandoned munitions were killed by a bomb, probably set by the soldiers. One of the soldiers died and the other was wounded.

The commander of the German division blamed the murder on "unnamed locals" and demanded the cooperation of the Carabinieri, at the moment under D'Acquisto's command. The next morning D'Acquisto, having gathered some information, tried in vain to answer that the murder should be considered a fortuitous occurence, one without any instigator, but the Germans insisted on their version of events and demanded reprisals, according to the order of Feldmarschall Kesselring a few days before.

Self-sacrifice

On the 23rd of September, the Germans conducted searches and arrested 22 persons from among innocent farmers in the military zone. An armed squad of Germans removed D'Acquisto from the station by force, and led him to Torre di Palidoro, where the hostages were gathered. An interrogation was held during which all the hostages said that they were innocent.

When the Germans again demanded to know the names of the responsible persons, D'Acquisto replied that there could not be any - the explosion was accidental, and the hostages or the other locals were utterly innocent. The Germans ridiculed, insulted, and beat him and tore his uniform. Suddely, the hostages were armed with shovels and forced to dig a big mass grave for the burial that would follow.

The digging went on for some time; when they were finished it was obvious the Germans would really carry out their threat.

D'Acquisto then confessed to the alleged crime, declared that he alone was responsible for the murder and that the hostages were innocent, and demanded that they should be released right away. The 22 prisoners at once ran away, leaving the officer, already in the grave, before the execution squad.

Salvo D'Acquisto was killed when he was twenty three years old. His remains are preserved in the first chapel on the left, near the entrance, at the Church of St. Clara in Naples.

External links

• "Convegno su "La figura del Servo di Dio Salvo D'Acquisto, Vice Brigadiere dei Carabinieri"" (in Italian). Arma dei Carabinieri. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
• "Salvo D'Acquisto" (in Italian). Arma dei Carabinieri. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
• "Salvo D'Acquisto" (in Italian). Pagine Culturali.it. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
• "Salvo D'Acquisto" (in Italian). Associazione Nazionale Partigiani d'Italia. Retrieved 2008-04-14.
• "Salvo D'Acquisto" (in Italian). Centro studi della Resistenza. Retrieved 2008-04-14.