Biography of Salvo D'acquisto

The sacrifice and memory

October 15, 1920
September 23, 1943
Salvo d'acquisto was born on 15 October 1920 in Naples, in Antignano in via San Gennaro, in a four-storey building, Villa Alba. His father, Salvatore, Palermo, and his mother, Ines, Naples. The first of five children (the others being Frank, Rosario, Erminia and Alexander), except grows according to a strict Catholic education since an early age and attended the Salesian asylum from the daughters of Mary help of Christians in Vomero via Alvino. After elementary school (school "Vanvitelli") and averages, he enrolled in high school "Giambattista Vico" terminated which receives the military card for calling lever; 15 August 1939 he enlisted as a volunteer-in-Carabinieri, whose weapon have played or play the maternal grandfather and three uncles.

The Carabinieri

After attending School, he was promoted to officer and sent to the Territorial Legion of Rome. Here he remained for some months, serving the core Fabbriguerra in Rome Sallustiana. Later volunteered for Libya with the Carabinieri Section 608esima near Tripoli: is the 23 November 1940, and it's been a few months since the beginning of World War II. Despite a leg injury, unless he decides to stay in area of operations with his unit, but because of malarial fever is forced to return to Italy. In September 1942 he attended the school Nco Carabinieri in Florence, and a few months later he was appointed non-commissioned officer. Then, after you get the rank of Deputy Brigadier, is sent to Torrimpietra, at the police station: a rural area along the via Aurelia, to several tens of kilometres from Rome (in a territory that is now part of the municipality of Fiumicino).

The meeting with the Nazi SS

After 8 September 1943 the Badoglio proclamation, Salvo D'acquisto has to reckon with the presence of a Department of the SS arrived: some men of the German troops, in fact, accasermano in different locations previously used by the Guardia di Finanza in Torre di Palidoro, a city which is part of the territory of the Carabinieri to Torrimpietra. On this occasion, on 22 September, the SS soldiers are victims of the explosion of a hand grenade occurred during an inspection of abandoned crates containing ammunition: two soldiers are injured and two others die. The responsibility of the episode is attributed to some local assassins, and the Commander of the German Department calls for the collaboration of the police: to respond to the request's Salvo D'acquisto, due to the absence of Marshal Commander. German threats of reprisals in case they are not found guilty of wrongdoing, Deputy Brigadier napoletano you put looking for reliable information about the incident, and considers that it is the SS a fortuitous accident. For an order of Feldmarschall Kesselring, however, the Germans did not recede from its position, and impose a retaliation. On 23 September are staged the raids leading to the capture of 22 people chosen randomly among the local residents, while an armed team picks up forcibly Salvo D'acquisto from the barracks and the door in the main square in Palidoro, along with the other hostages. During a quick interrogation, all Italians declare themselves innocent; Meanwhile, Deputy Brigadier is separate from the raked, kept in check by the German military, which do not fail to catch him with a stick and hit him: he, however, maintains a dignified demeanor. At that point the Germans ask CK D to indicate the names of those responsible, and the policeman responds that the explosion was accidental: in short, there aren't any.

A heroic action

Afterwards, and the hostages are taken out of the country: the raked are delivered of spades and is forced to dig to get a mass grave with a view to their shooting. Excavations lasting for a few hours; However, the hostages are all-unexpectedly-released except of purchase. The latter, in fact, self-reproach of the attack, even though you may not be responsible, to save the lives of twenty-two prisoners, who in fact are immediately freed and run off. Salvo D'acquisto remains inside the pit in front of the platoon ready to implement the execution. Before he was killed, he tosses the scream "long live Italy!"; then the Germans shoot without mercy. His body is then covered by the military, with the soil dug out earlier. Was less than 23 years. Today in Salvo D'acquisto and the memory of his sacrifice are titled monuments, avenues and barracks. His figure was also commemorated by Pope John Paul II, who in a speech to the police (February 26, 2001) had said: "the history of the Carabinieri proves that you can reach the peak of Holiness in the fulfilment of the duties of its faithful and generous. I think, here, your colleague, vice brigadiere Salvo D'acquisto, Gold Medal of military valor, whose cause of beatification is underway."
Article contributed by the team of collaborators.