Rome remembers Nazi deportation in Quadraro

Rome residents commemorate 76th anniversary of Nazi raid.

The district was well known for its numerous partisans and opponents of the regime.

On 17 April 1944, under the code name Walfisch (Operation Whale), the Nazis rounded up around 2,000 men from their homes in Quadraro, deporting at least 683* of them to concentration camps in Germany and Poland.

The operation took place at around 04.00 and was led by Rome’s SS chief Herbert Kappler who, less than a month earlier, was responsible for the Fosse Ardeatine massacre near the Via Appia Antica on 24 March.

It is estimated that only around half of the men survived and returned to Quadraro after the liberation of the camps.

For Rome, in terms of size, the Quadraro operation was second only to the raid at the Ghetto district on 16 October 1943, when more than 1,000 Jews were deported to the Nazi extermination camp at Auschwitz.

*The number of those deported range from 683, based on a list compiled by the parish priest Gioacchino Rey, however other estimates put the figure much higher, between 740 and 947.

Oggi è il 76esimo anniversario del rastrellamento nazista del Quadraro. Oltre 2 mila cittadini romani catturati nelle loro proprie case. Roma ricorda le vittime e si stringe alle loro famiglie. #RomaNonDimentica pic.twitter.com/BUQZ8PQENE— Virginia Raggi (@virginiaraggi) April 17, 2020