Alessandro Pirzio Biroli

Alessandro Pirzio Biroli
Personal information
Born (1877-07-23)23 July 1877
Bologna, Italy
Died 20 May 1962(1962-05-20) (aged 84)
Rome, Italy
Sport
Sport Fencing

Alessandro Pirzio Biroli (23 July 1877 20 May 1962) was an Italian fascist, fencer and army General.[1]

Biography

He won a silver medal in the team sabre event at the 1908 Summer Olympics.[2][3]

In 1918 Pirzio Biroli became the commanding officer for the 8th Bersaglieri Regiment. Between 1921 and 1927, he headed a military mission to Ecuador. He was commanding general of the Monte Nero Division from 1932 to 1933, and of the Italian V Trieste Corps from 1933 to 1935. He commanded the Eritrean Corps in the Second Italo-Abyssinian War, and subsequently was Governor of Amhara province in Italian East Africa from 1936 to 1937.

Pirzio Biroli was made General of the Italian 9th Army in 1941, and served as Governor of Montenegro from 1941 to 1943.[1] He was appointed by Mussolini with complete civil and military powers in Montenegro on 25 July 1941 and as governor of Montenegro in October 1941.[4]

He ruthlessly crushed the Montenegro Uprising of 1941. In 1942 he ordered 50 hostages shot for every Italian soldier killed and 10 hostages shot for every Italian soldier wounded. He also said to his soldiers : "I have heard that you are good family fathers. That is good at home, but not here. Here, you can't steal, murder and rape enough."

Pirzio Biroli was personally responsible for numerous execution and mass terror of the population of Montenegro.[5] Despite being very high on the list of war criminals of the United Nations War Crimes Commission, Pirzio Biroli was never tried and spent his old age in Rome.[6]

References

  1. 1 2 "Biography of General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli". generals.dk. Archived from the original on 11 April 2010. Retrieved 2010-04-05.
  2. "Alessandro Pirzio Biroli Olympic Results". sports-reference.com. Retrieved 5 April 2010.
  3. "Sabre Team Man". Retrieved 12 October 2012.
  4. Rodogno, Davide (3 August 2006). Fascism's European Empire: Italian Occupation During the Second World War. Cambridge University Press. p. 103. ISBN 978-0-521-84515-1. On 25 July 1941, General Alessandro Pirzio Biroli – formerly governor of Asmara – was invested by Mussolini with full military and civil powers in Montenegro...
  5. Pajović 1987, p. 109.
  6. "Italienische Kriegsverbrechen und Völkermord bleiben ungesühnt". Retrieved 13 April 2014.

Sources

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