APPLICATION OF THE LAW OF THE ABSENT* SOVEREIGN IN TERRITORY UNDER BELLIGERENT OCCUPATION: THE SCHIO MASSACRE

On July 6, 1945, in the village of Schio, a small community in the northern Italian Province of Vicenza, fifty-four persons confined in the Schio jail were shot to death by masked men who had forced their way into the prison. A large majority of the persons held in the Schio jail at the time of the shooting were suspected of collaboration with the Germans, and other political crimes. No formal charges were pending against one-third of the prisoners. At the time of the massacre the area was under the rule of the Allied Military Government.

Seven former partisans were arrested and charged before an Allied Military Court with the premeditated murder of the fifty-four prisoners and the attempted murder of thirty-one others.