In their attempts to suppress the Resistance , German and Italian Fascist forces ( especially the SS , Gestapo , and paramilitary militias such as Xª MAS and Black Brigades ) committed war crimes , including summary executions and systematic reprisals against civilian population . Resistance captives and suspects , as well as random local Italian civilians , were often tortured and raped . Italian Partisans , especially those in the mountainous and rural regions , relied heavily on the local populace for support and supplies . The Nazis tried to punish the populace and discourage civilian support for the Resistance by adopting a reprisal policy of killing 10 Italians for every German killed by the Partisans . Those executed would usually come from the village near where a partisan attack against Nazis took place and sometimes included captive partisan fighters themselves . Some of the most notorious mass atrocities included the Ardeatine massacre ( 335 Italian Jewish civilians and Italian political prisoners executed in a reprisal operation after a resistance bomb attack in Rome ) , the Sant ' Anna di Stazzema massacre ( about 560 random Italian villagers brutally killed in an anti-partisan operation in the central mountains ) , the Marzabotto massacre ( about 770 Italian civilians killed in similar circumstances ) and the Salussola massacre ( 20 Italian partisan murdered after being tortured ) . In all , an estimated 15,000 Italian civilians were deliberately killed , including many women and children
Marzabotto massacre
Marzabotto massacre
Anti-partisan operations in World War II