WILUAM E. W GOWEN

October 20,2012

Religious Aspects of the Italian Invasion of f,thiopia

As part of the Rome CIC's " Operation Circle" investigation, in 1946-47, aimed at

recapturing 23 Gestapo, SD and other sS offtcers, who had "escaped" from the BritishpOW .u1ni in Rimini, in June 1946, one of the people we picked up was a former officer

of the fasiist Militia. Here, I will call him Enzo. He had fought in Ethiopia in 1935-37, in

Spain in 1938-39, in France in 1940, then in Yugoslavia and later in Italy, to May 1945.

fte naO not been killed or even wounded during those ten years, but had lost many of his

associates. Some, however, had survived, and iomehow through some ofthem he served

on the fringes of the postwar Rome Ratline. But Enzo did not know how it worked, who

ran it, or how far it extended.

I had successfully tracked down Enzo in 1947,because on several occasions he had

earlier been selected as the chauffeur to drive Ferenc Vajta around Rome and to and from

locations outside but not far from Rome. Enzo was introduced to me by Vajta himsell

after I had otherwise learned his identity.

Occasionally, Enzo had been asked to pick up or deliver-a person or persons-by car' both

within Rome and elsewhere in Italy. One of the pefsons he had handled briefly (before

handling Vajta) had been Amin El-Husseini, the former Grand Mufti of Jerusalem 'The

Mufti had been rpon*t.O by Italy before the war, had resided in pre-war Rgme' and still

"had friends" there, but had end"i,tp as an SS Gruppenfuehrer, resident in Berlin' Enzo

did not know how the Mufti had reaihed Rome afteithe war, but did know that the Mufti

had left Rome for syria "to fight the Jews." Enzo met the Mufti in1946, when he drove

him from Rome to ih. Adriatt port of Bari. During the drive, Enzo had a long

conversation with the Mufti. He told the Mufti about his military advgntules before and

during the war. For his part, the Mufti was reserved, and gave out little information'

To my surprise, Enzo then turned to the subject of the religious aspects of Mussolini's

in rasion oiftniopiu, as it related, in his mind, to the Catholic Church, the Ethiopian

ad;t. Church unO iit.l.*s. He explained that he had discussed the Ethiopian Coptic

Church with the Mufti, during the drive to Bari'

Like many Italians, Enzo believed that Italy had invaded Eahiopia to avenge the

catastrophic Italian defeat there, in March iggO, at Adua' The Italian Army had been

slaughtered, the Italian dead had been desecrated, and ltaly's military reputation had been

destioyed. Mussolini, backed by the King, was determined to revive Italian military

"honor," as part of ti, alleged ievival ofTiRo*an civilization and Empire'" Two Italian

armies, one in the North, based in Massaua, in Italian Eritrea and the other in the South'

based in Mogadis"lo, i"itufian Somaliland, were to converge onAddis Ababa' The

Northern Army *u, lo.tanded by Marshal Pietro Badoglio, a favorite of the King'

while the Southern Army was commanded by General Rodolfo Ciraziarn, the most Fascist

of the Italian Royal Army's generals.

Graziani had completed the conquest of Libya, in late !93.1,by stamqing out the Arab

"rebellion" that had lone of there fot 2}years. There, he-had bombed and burned

villages, and, per to,itint orders, had summarily executed captuled "rebels," and

members oftheir frrifi.r. finutly, he had pers-onally supervised the public hanging of the

last rebel leader, O,,'* ELMukd;, before-an assembled crowd of 20,000. Consequently,

Mussolini thought gr*un"was just the man for his Ethiopian takeover. And Graziani,

as we shall see, duly performed, ruthlessly and mercilessly, just as Mussolini had

expected.

Adua" the site ofthe Italian defeat in 1896. was just south of Massaua. And very close to

Aksunr, site of the f."V C"ptit shrine that held, ttn Copti" Church said' the Ark ofthe

Covenant. In fact, the Italian invaders passed triumphantly through Aksum before

reaching Adua. Thr "r.cond battle of Adu4" in october .lg35,became,- according to the

Italians, "a massacre.; 6, tttty proceeded, iodoglio".soldiers were ruthless with the

local population. His Army dntaineO the'rwo *6tt "lit"

of the Fascist Militia Divisions'

the.March zirt, *a n" loctober 2gb' significantly, the "March 23"' Division was

commanded UV "

rourin of the King the Duie of Pistoia' (March 23 was in honor of the

founding date of tne fascist Party ii tgtg, and October 2.8 was the date of Mussolini's

..March on Romd' in 1922.)But the naaodio army also included many "native troop"

regiments omr.reA iy ftAiunt fn"se nati; tt*pt were EritreanMoslems' They were

incorporated formally into an "Indigenous Army bOrps," commanded by General

Alessandro pirzio #r"fi, *to t poied directly to General Badoglio'

The Southern Army. led by Ctraziari,also included Italian k*y' Fascist MilitiA and

native troops, .fr oitfrrlrtier Somali vrotfttt' Also included was the Libyan Division'

which included r"r"rr.r" lrrus from Ltd;. ; ;4t.T*"t moved towards the Ethiopian

capital, Addis Ab#;;; It;i;" lit fott! Uombed village-s' toop concentrations and also

herds of cattle. On the explicit orders;il"ssoli* unO6f eadoglio' yho lmmanded the

overall invasior\ tt" rturiin air force "il;;try.".u'*:-lg devastating effect on the

population and ne-irebef' continge"t" Vfil*iini;s son-in-law' Galeazzo Ciano' his son

Bruno, and various Fascist Mnisters, in"frraing Giusepp.e Bottai' served proudly and

ostentariously in th"; fbt;e inr*riopii. Th;[, ,h.y'witnessed the excesses of the

Italian forces, first hand'

As the Italian armies moved forward, they usually demanded that the local feudal

nobility, on or*ii**rin rirg. -'-;lJ#,ilitrtiopi.ngrpefor, "submit" and pledge

loyaltytotheIt ilKt;tt"AP.Mt$li"i' r"rottttoitatedto do so' Then' if thev

demonstrded any hostility o'. AU"y"i tt'"ir formal respo-nses' they were attacked'

captured *a *."ii*r* e*ecutedio;il; *liiit'"i1it''o*ttt' includin*vomen' These

summaryouss ol*rion, *o" u*iiv;il;;; utJh-J native troops of the Italian

armies, all of ttrei M;.i;r. "u,

rn#o#,";;;;;''' tiatians' In effect' the invasion

had become a religious war'

2

Some time after Badoglio's army reached Addis Ababq Mussolini decided to turn the

entire country over to Graziani. Graziani was promoted immediately to Mlrshal of Italy,

and invested with the title of Viceroy. Badoglio left to a hero's welcome in Rome, where

he was proclaimed Duke of Addis Ababa" and given an elegant, specially built villa on

Via Bruxelles. By this time, however, the Ethiopian Coptic Church was enraged, and

reluctant to proclaim its formal submission, a$ the Copic Church to Italy. The Italians

had already zummarily shot gome Coptic priests, and these executions were continuing.

In addition, many Italian Catholic missionaries were seen assisting the invaders.

But Graziani formally demanded that they, the leaders of the Coptic Church, also pledge

allegiance to the Italian King and the Duce. The surprising respotlse was a m{9rcooidinated attack on the capital, by several "rebel" groups. Graziani repelled the attacks

with difiiculty. But he was then himself the victim of an assassination attempt at a

formal public ceremony in Addis Ababa. He was wounded.

Graziani reacted by accusing the Coptic Church of being responsible folth. assassination

attempt, which tre saiO had 6een planned by the Coptic Chaplain to the Ethiopian

Empeior. He then sent his troopi to the major Coptic religious center at Debra Libanos.

There, some 1,000 priests, other clerics and religious students were rounded up -_ and

summarily shot, wiihout any trialg over a period oftwo days. As in earlier cases, the

executions were carried outas mass shootings by the Moslem soldiers of the Italian

Army. There were apparently no survivors in Debra Libanos after the mass killings

ended.

(It should be noted that Graziani remained loyal to Mussolini to the errd, serving as

tl{inirt.t ofDefense of his Salo "Fascist Republican" government, and as commander ofits Italian Fascist Army until 1945. Consequently, Enzo had continued to serve Graziani

proudly, until the end ofthe war. Unlike so many others, however, Enzo evaded capture

i" lr,4"i'lg1s,and never became a prisoner of war. As for Graziani, he surrendered to the

Americans at war's end, but was turned over to the British almost immediately. Thus,

Graziani survived after the rilar, as a British POW, and was later tried in posfwar Rome.

Latq, he then served as the chief of the postwar neo'Fascist party, the MSI')

The religious aspects ofthe Italian invasion included, moreover, the Papal blessing ofthe

Italian tioops, delivered, in St. Peter's Square, by Pope Pius )( in 1935' Equally

importantly, ih. ttuliun Queen donated her gold wedding ring to help finance the war at a

.u;or pubiic ceremony in Rome. Then caml the subsequent nationwide Italian campaign

to [u"i all Italian wives and widows donate their wedding rings to the cause. These

"voluntary donations" eventually totaled 35 tons of gold.

Fascist Italy, of cours€, was bankrupt, and the wedding ring campai-g-n' anintrysion into,

it might be ihoughg the sacrament of maniage, was essential to the financing the cost ofthe invasion. Moreover, it seems likely that Graziani's war on the Ethiopian Coptic

Church was also aimed to seizing whatever assets the Ethiopian Coptic Church

possessed, including gold, to help finance what became the Italian Occupation'

The Ethiopian Coptic Church, unlike the Protestant Churches in Western Europe, had

never been part of or a spinofffrom the Roman Catholic Church, as Enzo explained tome. To Catholic eyes, he said, the Coptic Church seemed a spurious development. In itsmost solemn prayers, moreover, it invoked Abraham and the *God oflsrael.," and tracedits origins to King Solomon and the Queen of Sheb4 whose son by Solomon, Menelik,was the founder of the Ethiopian royal dynasty - and, Enzo said, of the Ethiopian CopticChurch. In fact, an Ethiopian Emperor, also named Menelilq was the Emperor who had

defeated the Italian Army at Adua in 1896. Enzo said that Amin El-Husseini had told himthat he considered the Ethiopian Coptic Church a branch of the Jewish religion" directlydescended from Solomon himself, and Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem. Consequently,he added, the Coptic Emperor ofEthiopia was proclaimed "The Lion of Judah,"

To make Graziani even angrier, Enzo said, Graziani had failed to reach Addis Abbaba

before Badoglio, because he had stopped along the way to inspect or search a large

Coptic Church - and had plunged several meters down into a hole when the church's

aisle pavement broke. He was injured, though not critically, but required medical rest.

Characteristically, Crraziani had immediately considered this "accident" a deliberate

attempt to assassinate him. The incidont further reinforced his virulent hostility towards

the Co$ic Church.

Now, we should recognize that, allegedly, the most sacred object possessed by the

Ethiopian Coptic Church was the Ark of the Covenant, contained in a holy crypt in a

Coptic Church in Aksum - not far from the site of the Italian defeat at Adua in 1896.

Some Copts, and inded the Copic Church itself, were said to believe, Enzo asserted"

that the Ark of the Covenant hai bestowed special powers on the Emperor Menelik that

day. That legend, a popular myth so further emaged Graziani that he decided to go to

Aksum to enter the boptic Church there and make offwith the Ark of the Covenant.

Enzo did not know if &aziani had done so. But if he had found what purported to be the

Ark of the Covenant, however, he would have done so secretly -- and seot that sacred

object secretly to Rome, in imitation ofthe (future Emperor) Titus' who had sacked

Jerusalem and the TemPle in 70 AD.

According to many senior Rabbis today, we should note,-Titus never found the Ark of the

covenant when he raided Herod's Temple in Jenrsalenq because, they assert, the Ark of

the Covenant had been seized and destrtyed much earlier-by the Babylo.i.ans' But Titus

did seize the enormous decordive container, a major work of Jewish religious art' made

of solid gold, which contained a symboiic Jont topy ofthc Covenant' Of course' Titus

himself was certaiJt;;.*p* on the monotheistic Jewish religion" though |te

recognized th* tfrejewish ieligious uuit otiti"t in Jerusalern, the Pharisees' denied the

divinity of the nonl"n Cods. B-V seizing th? grTt Iteasurele had unexpectedly

discovered inthe T;J;, iffi t b"flytfrght hewas simultaneously enrichingRome

and destroying the Jewish God'

Consequerrtly,someRabbisnowassert,theEt$o-91*.c"tti"ChurchinAksumnev€rcontained the fuk;frh. covenant. nnti i"rt*a,_u|. qr Temple in Jerusalem, the

church in Akzum contained only a u""t *pv ortrc covenant embraced in an elaborate

solid gold container that, ornamentally, probably depicted Moses, Abrahar\ Solomon,the Queen of Sheba and Menelik, the founder of the Ethiopian Coptic Church. If,therefore, Graziani had raided the Church in Aksunu as Enzo alleged, he, like Titusbefore hinl would have made offsecretly with all the gold he found there.

What Graziani did with the stone copy we don't know, but like Titus before him, heprobably dispatched it secretly to Rome, together with the gold.

As a start, athorough investigation of the 1936 massacre at Debra Libanos should be

initiated, in cooperation with the Ethiopian govenrment authorities. But even moreimportantly, the massacre at Debra Libanos should not be considered just as an isolatedincident, but rather as part of a larger religious, or rather anti-religious, program thatincluded the alleged raid, by Grazian| on the Church in Aksum.

But we must recognize that Graziani had then deliberately executed everybody he foundat Debra Libanos so that no survivors ofthe religious community there remained alive.We do not know, however, if there may have been a few survivors ofthese massacres.

Some such survivors, in later years, after the Italian defeat in Ethiopi4 might still havereported, later, on the Debra Libanos massacres, and the Italian Army's systematiclooting of monasteries and churches there. I note for the record that Graaani's '?oliticalAdvisor"' in Ethiopia, was Ignazio San Felice, a senior member of the Italian DiplomaticService, who in 1947-8 served as Diplomatic Advisor to the then President of Italy,Enrico de Nicola.

Graziani's postwar war crimes trial took place in Rome in 1948. He was tried by anItalian Military Tribunal, together with Prince Junio Valerio Borghese, who had alsoremained faithful to Mussolini to the end. Though both were "convisted," they werereleased immediately.

After 1945, however. no tribunal in Italy or elsewhere ever charged Graziani with warcrimes in Ethiopia.

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