Addis Ababa Massacre

Italy's National Shame

Campbell Ian

For sale in CIS only!

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 defenceless 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 groundbreaking work backed up by meticulous 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.

About the Author

Ian Campbell, a development consultant specialising in East Africa, has been studying and writing about Ethiopia since 1988. The author of several scholarly papers on various aspects of Ethiopian cultural history, his works on the Italian occupation (1936-1941) include "The Plot to Kill Graziani" and "The Massacre of Debre Libanos".

Reviews

"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-Marim? 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 defenceless 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"

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