Commemorative stamp series - Germany / German Democratic Republic 1974 - 35 Pfennig

International Remembrance and Memorial Centers The Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications of the German Democratic Republic issues two special postage stamps showing excerpts from the memorials in the Ardeatine Caves near Rome and at Châteaubriant, France. Memorial in the Ardeatine Caves The Ardeatine Caves ("Fosse Ardeatine") were built at the suggestion of Italian antifascist organizations near Rome, near the Roman catacombs. The monument shows in survival size three figures bound together: an old man, a youth and a middle-aged man. These three figures symbolize the common struggle of the Italian antifascists and other forces for peace and national independence, against war, reaction and fascism. The memorial commemorates the murder of 335 political prisoners by soldiers of the Hitlerite German Wehrmacht. The infamous Field Marshal Albert Kesselring gave the order for the sneaky shooting of the arbitrarily chosen one. This war criminal was sentenced to death in connection with other atrocities in 1947 but, like many other Nazi and war criminals, was pardoned for "sanitary reasons" and released. He received a high pension and was elected Honorary President of the militaristic "Stahlhelm" in the Federal Republic of Germany. The murder of innocent people, including old people and children, Catholic priests and Jewish citizens by neck shot was regarded as a retaliatory act. In fact, it was a mean act of revenge by the competent authorities of the fascist Wehrmacht, because courageous Italian patriots, members of a guerrilla unit, had succeeded in tracking down and destroying SS bandits - guilty of numerous crimes - in March 1944. To cover up their cruel crime, the killers have blown up the Ardeatine Caves. After the expulsion of the Hitlerite troops from Italy, the victims were exhumed and identified. Even before the construction of the memorial, a worthy memorial was created on the site of the horror. The caves were uncovered and the simple, unified stone coffins placed in a large hall. Only an eternal light illuminates this probably unique cemetery. The sites where the devious assassinations took place were reconstructed. These facilities, the monumental memorial hall and the memorial built at the entrance to the caves, form an impressive uniform memorial.