Nazis loot Catania homes; mayor complains to Allies
Sicilian official describes how Germans blew up hotel, power plant before retreat
By Ned Russell, United Press staff writer
Catania, Sicily, Italy – (Aug. 5, delayed)
The Mayor of Catania, Marquis di San Giuliano, officially welcomed British military authorities to deprived the 50,000 inhabitants remaining in the city of food for 24 hours before the British troops arrived.
Sitting in a spacious office in the Carabinieri headquarters, beneath a huge photograph of King Victor Emmanuel, the dapper little mayor turned over his battle-scarred city to a brigadier, who commanded the first troops to sweep through Catania in pursuit of the fleeing Germans.
The mayor spoke bitterly of the departed Germans and vowed enthusiastically that “Fascism and the Germans are enemies of Sicily.”
Blow up hotel
His bitterness was accentuated when he told the British commander how the Nazi troops, on their last night in the city, blew up the Hotel Moderna, which had been the German headquarters, the city’s electricity works and the post office.
The Marquis said:
They used to be wonderfully smart and cheerful soldiers, but since Tunis fell, they bullied us constantly and stole food, clothing and household belongings and sold them in other cities and villages.
Only about 50,000 of Catania’s 244,000 inhabitants remained in the city before the Allied advance, the mayor said, and most of them had not eaten in the past 24 hours.
Permission granted
He appealed to the brigadier for permission to repair the electricity works in order to operate the flour mills and use big supplies of wheat stored near the city.
The Allied commander immediately complied and at the same time informed San Giuliano that the local authorities and police were given responsibility for halting looting and restoring order.
The mayor disclosed that nearly 2,000 civilians had been killed in Allied air raids since June 15, and that more than half of the 50,000 who remained in the city were forced to live constantly in basement air-raid shelters.
Loot mayor’s car
The Germans started to leave the Catania sector three days ago, San Giuliano said, after attempting by various means to block the Allied advance.
He explained:
They looted my car once and stole it from me at the point of a machine-gin this morning to carry ammunition to a machine-gun post at a road junction north of the city. I told the first British officer I met about that machine-gun post and he fixed it.
The Germans tried to tell us they were fighting for Italy, and they couldn’t understand why we didn’t fight. But we know they are only fighting to keep you out of the European mainland as long as possible.