The Addis Ababa Massacre: Italy's National Shame

by Ian Campbell

Overview

In February 1937, following an abortive attack by a handful of insurgents on Mussolini's High Command in Italian-occupied Ethiopia, 'repression squads' of armed Blackshirts and Fascist civilians were unleashed on the defenseless residents of Addis Ababa. In three terror-filled days and nights of arson, murder and looting, thousands of innocent and unsuspecting men, women and children were roasted alive, shot, bludgeoned, stabbed to death, or blown to pieces with hand-grenades. Meanwhile the notorious Viceroy Rodolfo Graziani, infamous for his atrocities in Libya, took the opportunity to add to the carnage by eliminating the intelligentsia and nobility of the ancient Ethiopian empire in a pogrom that swept across the land.

In a richly illustrated and ground-breaking work backed up by meticulous and scholarly research, Ian Campbell reconstructs and analyses one of Fascist Italy's least known atrocities, which he estimates eliminated 19-20 per cent of the capital's population. He exposes the hitherto little known cover-up conducted at the highest levels of the British government, which enabled the facts of one of the most hideous civilian massacres of all time to be concealed, and the perpetrators to walk free.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780190674724
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	08/15/2017
Pages:	448
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Ian Campbell, a development consultant specializing in East Africa, has been studying and writing on Ethiopia since 1988. The author of several scholarly papers on various aspects of Ethiopian cultural history, his works on the Italian occupation (1936-41) include The Plot to Kill Graziani and The Massacre of Debre Libanos.

Table of Contents

List of Maps xi

List of Tables xiii

List of Figures xv

Abbreviations xxiii

Notes on Transliteration xxv

Glossary & Explanatory Note xxvii

Acknowledgements xxxiii

Forword Richard Pankhurst xli

Introduction 1

1 Background 9

Prelude 9

Addis Ababa on the Eve 22

Invasion and Occupation 25

Policies of Repression 29

Warnings and Foreboding 45

Yekatit 12 47

2 The Trigger 49

Speeches and Shocks 49

Slaughter at the Palace 51

3 An Hour of Mayhem 59

The Circle of Death 59

Slaughter in Arada 72

Escape to Qechené 81

Foreign Dispatches 82

4 Death in the Afternoon 91

Curfew (1.00-1.30 pm) 91

Arrests, Detention and Murder (1.30-5.00 pm) 92

A State of Siege 104

5 Carta Bianca 111

'Do As You Please!' (4.30-5.00 pm) 111

Terror Unleashed (5.00-6.45 pm) 115

Fire and Fury (6.45 pm Friday-6.00 am Saturday) 126

Villages of Death 137

6 The Second Day 159

The Morning After 159

The Killing Continues 161

The Transport Operations 166

Inside the Municipality 174

Saturday Afternoon 175

Mohamedally under Attach 179

Another Night of Fire and Fury 182

7 The Third Day 187

Sunday Morning 187

'Reprisals Should Cease' 191

Sunday Afternoon 194

Blackshirts out of Control (Sunday Night) 196

A Deadly New Development 200

8 The Aftermath 205

The Battlefield 205

Horrors at the Central Police Station 208

Flight from the City 215

Adrenalin Runs High 216

Terror on the Outskirts 219

Body Disposal at Gulelé 221

The Detained 223

The Mystery of Engert's Refuguese 234

9 Roman Justice 239

Elimination of the Undesirables 239

The Suspects 242

The Young Ethiopians 256

The Nobility and Notables 274

10 The Reckoning 279

Who Gave the Order? 279

The Participants 282

The Victims 295

Unsung Heroes 299

The Death Toll 308

Conclusion 327

Robbery With Violence 330

11 The Cover-Up 333

Perfect Tranquillity 333

The Emperor Returns 339

In Memoriam 343

Appeals for Justice 346

The Final Sabotage 348

12 Reflections 351

Epilogue 355

Appendix I Young Ethipians Executed Following Yekatit 12 379

Appendix II Partial List of Addis Ababa-based Nobles and Notables Executed Following Yekatit 12 391

Appendix III Telegram of 19 February 1937 from Minister Alessandro Lessona to Provincial Governors 395

Appendix IV Phonogram of 21 February 1937 from the Fascist Party Office to the Chef de Cabinet 397

Appendix V Photography 399

Notes 407

Bibliography 447

Index 463

Editorial Reviews

"Campbell draws on his impressive source base to resolve some of the most pressing questions about the massacre. [...] Campbell notes that after the occupation, Italians were quick to develop a case of collective amnesia. Britain would also play a decisive role in the shameful cover-up, burying evidence of the atrocities, and ultimately angling to ensure Ethiopia was denied membership to the United Nations War Crimes Commission. As a result, the perpetrators of the Italian occupation were never held accountable for their crimes in Ethiopia, and the details of those three fateful days in February 1937 have remained largely unknown. Campbell's carefully crafted and accessible study helps to rectify this injustice, and should be considered an essential read for scholars of Ethiopian and colonial history." — Caitlin Collis , University of Pennsylvania, H-net

"Ian Campbell painstakingly recounts, almost to the hour, the details of this seemingly impromptu extermination campaign. In his introduction, Campbell laments that many readers may struggle to reconcile the atrocities perpetrated by the Italians with the lingering perception of Italy as a paternalistic colonizer. His reconstruction of the massacre-which draws on oral interviews with survivors; diplomatic correspondences of the British, French, and American envoys in Addis at the time; and a collection of photos in which Italian citizens proudly pose in front of the victims of their carnage-makes any such ambivalence regarding the true nature of the Italian occupation impossible. ... Campbell's carefully crafted and accessible study helps to rectify this injustice, and should be considered an essential read for scholars of Ethiopian and colonial history." — Caitlin Collis, H-Net

"The most authoritative account to date of this much-neglected atrocity."— Financial Times Books of the Year 2017

"[T]he first comprehensive account of the massacre . . . In Italy Graziani's great crime is seen as little more than a typical European colonial atrocity . . . But, as Mr Campbell's meticulous work makes plain . . . this was a methodical effort to wipe out Ethiopian resistance to Italian rule, more like later Nazi war crimes than earlier colonial massacres. . . . Mr. Campbell's book will be welcomed by the Ethiopian government, which has long argued that its citizens deserve an apology." — The Economist

"Graphic and detailed . . . The Addis Ababa Massacre will shake even more thoroughly the comforting clichés about the Italians always being 'nice people.'" — History Today

"[A] masterly history . . . Ian Campbell has performed a tremendous service by rescuing from historical neglect and European propaganda the stories of the victims of 20th-century Italy's homicidal push for greatness." — The National

"Whilst the British and French were appeasing Mussolini, his blackshirts were slaughtering thousands of Ethiopians - a massacre completely ignored by the League of Nations. 80 years later, Ian Campbell's latest oeuvre is a concisely researched, well-documented and brilliantly written tribute to those forgotten victims of barbarous Italian Fascism in Ethiopia."— Prince Asfa-Wossen Asserate PhD, historian, bestselling author and political analyst

"A masterly examination of a hideous war crime which has never been so comprehensively researched. This forensic investigation is chillingly brought to life by the vivid memories of survivors whom the author has tirelessly tracked down. Campbell has done the world a great service by so clinically exposing such brutality." — Keith Bowers, broadcaster and author of Imperial Exile: Emperor Haile Selassie in Britain 1936-40

"A detailed and fully documented account of one of the great under-reported atrocities of the twentieth century. Campbell makes a highly important contribution in exposing this extremely brutal yet virtually unknown episode. The entirely original testimony of surviving eyewitnesses adds striking vividness to this valuable book. Genuinely original." —Christopher Clapham, Centre of African Studies, University of Cambridge and author of The Horn of Africa

"Ian Campbell's book is a chilling account of one of the most terrible crimes against humanity of the twentieth century: the massacre by occupying Italians over three days in February 1937 of thousands of Ethiopian citizens in Addis Ababa. Campbell reconstructs in meticulous detail, from a wide range of sources, including many eyewitness testimonies, the initial trigger for the massacre, its various stages, the responsibilities of different groups of perpetrators, and its legacy in later memory . . . The result is the most comprehensive and accurate account now available in any language of the Yekatit 12 massacre." — David Forgacs, Guido and Mariuccia Zerilli-Marimò Professor of Contemporary Italian Studies, New York University; author of Italy's Margins

"This book rounds out the trilogy that Ian Campbell has worked on for such a long period of time. The first, The Plot to Kill Graziani, was a great success; the second, The Massacre of Debre Libanos, was another research feat. The third has all the makings of a blockbuster. It is a meticulously researched, brilliantly written and abundantly illustrated book. It is a must read for all those interested in the history of Fascism globally and in the modern history of Ethiopia." — Shiferaw Bekele, Professor of History, Addis Ababa University

"The February 1937 massacre by Fascist Italy of thousands of defenseless Ethiopian civilians stands as the first and least known genocide of World War II. Ian Campbell spent more than twenty years conducting research on that killing field, in which countless men, women and children were wiped out, and educated Ethiopians, community leaders and notables were systematically eliminated. It is good to have this authoritative synthesis of that horrifying event between two covers at last." — Donald N. Levine, Peter B. Ritzma Professor Emeritus of Sociology, University of Chicago; author of Wax and Gold: Tradition and innovation in Ethiopian Culture and Greater Ethiopia

"Campbell's detailed research, which cuts much new ground, provides the reader with a daily, almost hourly, picture of the infamous three days, enhanced by many photographic images not previously in the public domain." — Richard K. Pankhurst, Professor of History, Addis Ababa University; author of The Ethiopians: A History, and Sylvia Pankhurst: Counsel for Ethiopia

"Breath-taking and intriguing . . . monumental. . . [Campbell writes] with the skill of a novelist and the research prowess of a well-seasoned academic. . . He has created an important historical account that is accessible. This book will satisfy academics, researchers, and the general public alike."— The Wiener Library Blog

"Ian Campbell's account of these events is an exhaustive narrative history, and the culmination of 25 years' research. . . he has compiled a book that manages to give the reader the most accurate picture of Yekatit 12 and its aftermath currently available to historians, alongside an examination of the context of imperial conquest and violence, and an analysis of the reasons for its relative lack of exposure. What is particularly impressive is the extent to which the voices of survivors are present in the text . . . Campbell's book is an excellent piece of historical research which leaves no stone unturned in its efforts to get to the truth of what happened and to contextualise the massacre within European imperialism. It is difficult to see how it will be surpassed as a document of one of the most appalling acts of violence of the twentieth century." — Counterfire

"Campbell's extraordinary research (which has spanned a quarter of a century) maps out the massacre . . . in exemplary fashion. It is a horrific tale, told with verve and a sense of moral passion, but also with the meticulous skill of a detective and a historian."—Times Literary Supplement

"A magisterial work which deserves the attention of a wide audience as it provides a sober yet spellbinding narrative of one of the era's greatest desecrations of humanity."— New African Magazine

"Campbell reveals, in excruciating detail, how extreme and indiscriminate violence and brutality perpetrated against innocent and unarmed civilians was a standard policy followed by Fascist Italy. . . an important historical account."—African Studies Quarterly

From the Publisher