Lake Maggiore massacres

Lake Maggiore massacres
Stolpersteine in Meina
Lake Maggiore massacres (Northern Italy)
Location	Lake Maggiore, Piedmont, Italy
Coordinates	45°47′N 8°32′E / 45.783°N 8.533°E / 45.783; 8.533
Date	September–October 1943
Target	Italian Jews and Jewish refugees
Attack type	Massacre
Deaths	56
Perpetrators	Soldiers of the 1st SS Panzer Division
Convicted	Five members of the division
Verdict	1968: Three sentenced for life and two sentenced to three years in jail 1970: All sentences overturned and perpetrators released

The Lake Maggiore massacres was a set of World War II war crimes that took place near Lake Maggiore, Italy, in September and October 1943. Despite strict orders not to commit any violence against civilians in the aftermath of the Italian surrender on 8 September 1943, members of the 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler murdered 56, predominantly Italian and Greek, Jews. Many of the bodies were sunk into the lake to prevent discovery but one washed ashore in neighbouring Switzerland, drawing international attention to the massacre and prompting an inconclusive divisional inquiry. It is commonly referred to as the first German massacre of Jews in Italy during World War II.

The war crime was subject to a trial in West Germany in 1968 in which five of the accused were found guilty but later controversially released after a verdict by the German high court which ruled that the statute of limitations for the case had expired.