Salvo d'Acquisto

Salvo D'Acquisto (15 or 17 October 1920 in Naples – 23 September 1943 in Torre di Palidoro, Rome) was a member of the Italian Carabinieri during the Second World War. He was posthumously awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor and is being considered for beatification for sacrificing himself to save 22 civilians from being executed by German soldiers.

Salvo D'Acquisto was born in Naples, the eldest of eight children, three of whom died in infancy, and another as a child. His father worked in a chemical factory. He left school at the age of 14, as was customary for working-class boys at the time.

He volunteered to join the Carabinieri in 1939 and left for Libya the next year, a few months before the start of the Second World War. After being wounded in the leg, he remained with his division until he contracted malaria. He returned to Italy in 1942 to attend officer school. He graduated as a vice-sergeant and was assigned to an outpost in Torrimpietra, a little rural center on the Via Aurelia not far from Rome.

In July 1943, Benito Mussolini was overthrown, and the new Italian government negotiated secretly with the Allies to switch sides. An armistice was officially announced on 8 September.

Around 8 September, a division of German SS troops camped near an old military installation previously used by the Guardia di Finanza, in the vicinity of Torre di Palidoro, which was in the territorial jurisdiction of the Torrimpietra station. Here, on 22 September, German soldiers were inspecting boxes of abandoned munitions when there was an explosion. One died and two others were wounded.

The commander of the German division blamed the death on "unnamed locals" and demanded the cooperation of the Carabinieri, at the moment under D'Acquisto's temporary command. The next morning, D'Acquisto, having gathered some information, tried in vain to explain that the death was an accident, but the Germans insisted on their version of events and demanded reprisals, according to the order of Feldmarschall Kesselring issued a few days before.

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