Throughout the Second World War, thousands of civilians and innocent people were slaughtered
and executed by the German Army and the Nazis.
There were a horrific number of mass killings, and still today a number of crimes have yet
to been uncovered, and bodies still lie under the earth.
Some of the most evil crimes were committed against civilians, as many found themselves
deported to concentration camps and they suffered at the hands of the evil SS guards.
Across many nazi occupied lands, there were stories of brutality and evil conducted by
the Nazi soldiers, and inside of Italy the same occurred despite the fact throughout
most of the conflict the Italians and the Nazis were closely linked in an alliance.
Mussolini and Hitler were best friends, however in 1944 there was one young 20 year old girl,
who would be made a martyr by the evil treatment of a Nazi soldier.
Teresa Bracco was subjected to a horrific ordeal, and was executed in cold blood by
an evil German soldier.
But what is her brutal story?
Join us today as we find out, and as always please make sure to subscribe.
Teresa Bracco was born in Dego in Savona in 1924, and she was part of a very large family,
having 6 other siblings.
Her parents were modest farmers, and when she was around the age of 3, two of her brothers
would die within a week of each other.
Her family were worried about leaving the farm to the daughters when they were older,
and they preferred a son to take possession of it.
However in 1924 Teresa was baptised, and she was named after a saint.
The family were very religious, and in the evenings her father oversaw the recitation
of the rosaries, and Theresa often recited these as she would do a number of jobs around
the house.
Many people were impressed with her including senior priests, and she was given a range
of religious books and texts to read and study as a young girl to develop her knowledge.
She made her first communion in Spring 1931, and then received her confirmation in October
1933.
She was incredibly devoted to her religion, and she often rose early int her longings
to walk over a kilometre to attend mass.
She claimed in 1933 that she had a religious vision, and saw a Saint with his motto ‘Death
rather than sin,’ and with this she applied this motto to her life.
She began to read about this Saint’s life, and she continued her religious devotion.
Throughout her teenage years, she was a rather modest girl.
She appeared shy and timid, and dressed modestly turning her back on makeup.
However many men and boys inside of the town saw her as beautiful, and they wanted to walk
with her to Mass or inside of the fields.
However as the Second World War broke out, chaos would be brought to Italy.
Italy joined the war as one of the Axis powers, and was joined at the hip with Nazi Germany
as Mussolini and Hitler swore and alliance.
Mussolini knew Italy was not ready for a long conflict, but Itlay would be involved in a
number of invasions, and they would also annex a series of lands.
However eventually Mussolini would be turned on, and he was placed in custody upon the
order of King Victor Emmanuel III which provoked civil war.
It’s occupied and annexed lands fell under German control, and despite Mussolini being
rescued by German soldiers, on the 13th October 1943, the Kingdom of Italy officially joined
the Allied powers, doing a U turn, and they declared war on it’s former Axis partner
Germany.
The north of Italy would be occupied by the Germans, and they co-operated with Italian
Fascists, and this became a collaborates puppet state, and here the Germans would do almost
as they pleased.
Teresa Brace’s farther would die on the 13th May 1944, and this greatly upset her,
but within a few months chaos would be brought to her local village and region.
On the 28th August 1944, she went to morning mass at 7am as always, and then following
this she went to work in the fields of her farm alongside her two sisters Adele and Anne.
But the girls then heard three gunshots, and at 9am, a group of Partisans on the run told
them not to return to their homes.
They said that the German soldiers were fast approaching their position, and that they
would be in a huger amount of danger.
The Partisans told them that it was possible the German soldiers would assault them, and
the girls wanted to go home to help their mother a widower hide, and they also wanted
to go back to the farmhouse to collect a number of possessions to help them escape.
They also wanted to collect important possessions including a photograph of their father.
However the Nazis entered her hometown of Santa Guilia, and they pushed back the Italian
Partisans.
Whilst inside the town, they caused chaos and ran rampage, breaking into many homes
and looting them, and also hunting Partisans, and parading them as spoils of war to the
locals.
At 3pm, the soldiers got there, and Teresa Bracco hid behind a rock, however she was
then discovered by the Nazis.
The Nazis had kidnapped and abducted a number of other women from the town, and they abducted
Teresa Bracco.
The Nazis paraded Teresa along with the other women which included her cousin and her child,
and her child was given to Teresa to hold for a short while, however the Germans then
became very angry as the child began to scream and cry.
However Teresa’ brutal ordeal was just beginning.
A Nazi soldier grabbed Teresa, and then marched her into the woods on her own.
She tried to run and escape and find help, but the soldier then managed to capture her.
Angered, he then forced her onto the floor and tried to strangle her, and Teresa Bracco
put up a fight, knowing if she didn’t she would be killed.
The soldier was trying to assault her, and Teresa continued to resist, but then the German
soldier pulled out his pistol, moved it over to Teresa’s body, and held it over her heart.
He then pulled the trigger twice, firing two bullets into her heart, killing her instantly.
After this, he then pushed the dead body to the floor, and he then stomped on her skull
and then left her in the wood to go and commit more horrific crimes.
The local priest Father Natele then searched the woods to look for women who had been abducted,
and he then discovered Teresa Bracco's dead body, with her hands crossed over her chest.
A bullet had passed through one of her hands, and was found lodged in her upper chest, and
there was also a pale mark one her throat, and many bruises on her face, along with bite
marks across her arms and chest.
Her remains were quickly covered, and a doctor was fetched to confirm her death and to examine
what had happened in her final moments.
The day after her body was found, her funeral occurred and then in 1989 her body was exhumed
as part of the beatification process.
Teresa Bracco was just 20 years old when she was brutally slaughtered by a Nazi soldier
inside of a forest near her home.
She was subjected to a horrific ordeal in her final moments, and she had her whole future
ahead of her.
She was a young farmer who had recently lost her father, and she was a very religious girl.
But at the hands of the evil German army, she lost her life in terrible conditions and
circumstances, and she was just one of thousands of civilians who were killed by barbaric acts
during the Second World War.
Teresa Bracco's story is one which deserves to be well known.
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