The withdrawal of Italy from the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and the German Reich, followed by its switch to the side of the Entente and subsequent declaration of war, cost Italy over 600,000 dead and resulted in a further 900,000 disabled veterans. This was the horrendous price that Italy quite consciously paid for its war of aggression in return for its share of the territorial “spoils of war” on the Adriatic, as well as Italy’s northern border with the Crown Land of Tyrol.
Shortly after the signing of the Treaty of St. Germain, Italy – in contravention of international law – annexed South Tyrol, thus creating the SOUTH TYROL PROBLEM. The “Duce” was quick to recognise the voting potential of veterans in shoring up his power in South Tyrol, Libya and his other territorial ambitions in Africa Orientale Italiana and, starting in 1926, he began the design and building of gigantic monuments to the dead throughout Upper Italy.
Significantly, the last ossuaries were completed in 1939 in South Tyrol, in Burgeis, Gossensass and Innichen, although no fighting ever took place there. This “Rampart of Dead Soldiers” was intended to justify the annexing of the people of South Tyrol and the Ladins of the Dolomites. Those buried here were in fact exhumed from the front lines and brought here on the basis of a political calculation – a remarkable falsification of history. But contemporary history mercilessly unmasks lies.
Translation / Speaker : Gareth Norbury

The withdrawal of Italy from the Triple Alliance with Austria-Hungary and the German Reich, followed by its switch to the side of the Entente and subsequent declaration of war, cost Italy over 600,000 dead and resulted in a further 900,000 disabled veterans. This was the horrendous price that Italy quite consciously paid for its war of aggression in return for its share of the territorial “spoils of war” on the Adriatic, as well as Italy’s northern border with the Crown Land of Tyrol.
Shortly after the signing of the Treaty of St. Germain, Italy – in contravention of international law – annexed South Tyrol, thus creating the SOUTH TYROL PROBLEM. The “Duce” was quick to recognise the voting potential of veterans in shoring up his power in South Tyrol, Libya and his other territorial ambitions in Africa Orientale Italiana and, starting in 1926, he began the design and building of gigantic monuments to the dead throughout Upper Italy.
Significantly, the last ossuaries were completed in 1939 in South Tyrol, in Burgeis, Gossensass and Innichen, although no fighting ever took place there. This “Rampart of Dead Soldiers” was intended to justify the annexing of the people of South Tyrol and the Ladins of the Dolomites. Those buried here were in fact exhumed from the front lines and brought here on the basis of a political calculation – a remarkable falsification of history. But contemporary history mercilessly unmasks lies.
Translation / Speaker : Gareth Norbury