The Gondrand massacre was a 1936 Ethiopian attack on Italian workers of the Gondrand company. It was publicized by Fascist Italy in an attempt to justify its ongoing invasion of Ethiopia.[1][2][3]
| Gondrand Massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of the Second Italo-Ethiopian War | |
 Victims of the massacre | |
| Location | Near Mai Lahlà, Ethiopia |
| Date | February 13, 1936 |
| Target | Italian workers of the Gondrand Company |
| Victims | 68 killed 27 wounded 4 missing 40 Ethiopian soldiers killed |
| Perpetrators |  Imperial Ethiopian Army |
History
editThe Gondrand massacre occurred on February 13, 1936, near the northern Ethiopian town of Mai Lahlà, the current Rama.[3][4] A camp of civilian workers for the logistics company Gondrand, engaged at the time in road construction, was attacked at dawn by Ethiopian soldiers under the orders of Ras Imru.[3] The construction yard was equipped with about 15 muskets, and the workers also used their work tools as defense weapons, but they were overwhelmed by the surprise attack of the Ethiopians.[5]
The massacre took place around the same time as the Battle of Amba Aradam, fought from 10 to 19 February 1936, about 200 kilometres (120 mi) south of Mai Lahlà.[6]
Casualties
editOf the 130 workers present,[7] 68 Italians were killed, and the bodies of 17 of them were castrated in contravention of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie's explicit order not to mutilate enemy corpses, while 27 others were wounded and four went missing.[2] Of these, two were later confirmed to have been taken prisoner.[2]
About 40 Ethiopian soldiers also died in the attack, mostly because a store of gelignite exploded.[3] Retaliatory massacres were carried out by Italian soldiers against Ethiopian civilians in the aftermath of the attack, resulting in untold deaths.[3][8]
Publicity
editItalian authorities generally instructed journalists to avoid describing Italian losses during the war, but in this case the story was deliberately promoted for its propaganda value in depicting Ethiopians as barbaric.[1][3]
The killing of Italian pilot Tito Minniti and his copilot happened some weeks before and together with this massacre was the reason given by the Italians for the use of gas against the Ethiopians, a claim supported by historians like Tripoli and Pedriali.[9] However, as professor of Italian studies David Forgacs argues, while "the Italians sought to give maximum publicity to the massacre of Italian civilians by Ethiopians at the Gondrand camp they were equally strenuous in their efforts to prevent records or reports of their own massacres of civilians".[3]
In response to photographic evidence that some Ethiopian troops had ignored the order against mutilating corpses, Ethiopia's Foreign Minister was forced to admit that it had happened, but argued that it should be seen as an act of protest against Italian atrocities.[2]
See also
edit
Notes
edit- ^ a b Andreani, Marco; Pazzaglia, Nicoletta (2019). Photography as Power: Dominance and Resistance through the Italian Lens. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. pp. 83–86. ISBN 978-1527524880.
- ^ a b c d Baudendistel, Rainer (2006). Between Bombs and Good Intentions: The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936. Oxford and New York: Berghahn Books. pp. 242–246. ISBN 1782388729.
- ^ a b c d e f g Forgacs, David (2014). Italy's Margins: Social Exclusion and Nation Formation since 1861. Cambridge University Press. pp. 123–127. ISBN 978-1139868143.
- ^ History Revealed: Collection of 22 photos of the Gondrand Massacre
- ^ Gondrand massacre (in italian), with photo of Lidia Maffioli and others
- ^ Barker, A. J. (1971). Rape of Ethiopia, 1936. New York: Ballantine Books. pp. 80–81. ISBN 0345024621.
- ^ List of names of workers murdered
- ^ Marrocu, Luciano (2015). Novelli, Cecilia Dau; Farnetti, Paolo Bertella (eds.). Flaiano in Africa: A Rare Example of Lucidity. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p. 97. ISBN 978-1443881265.
{{cite book}}:|work=ignored (help) - ^ Pedriali, Ferdinando. "L'Aeronautica italiana nelle guerre coloniali". Rome: Ufficio Storico Aeronautica Militare, 2000