At the 16th-century local church, the priest Fiore Menguzzo (awarded the Medal for Civil Valor posthumously in 1999[7]) was shot at point-blank range, after which machine guns were then turned on some 100 people gathered there.

In all, the victims included at least 107 children (the youngest of whom, Anna Pardini, was only 20 days old),[8] as well as eight pregnant women (one of whom, Evelina Berretti, had her womb cut with a bayonet and her baby pulled out and killed separately).

Apart from the divisional commander Max Simon,[a] no one was prosecuted for this massacre until July 2004, when a trial of ten former Waffen-SS officers and NCOs living in Germany was held before a military court in La Spezia, Italy.

On 22 June 2005, the court found the accused guilty of participation in the killings and sentenced them in absentia to life imprisonment:[11] However, extradition requests from Italy were rejected by Germany.

"[14] The mayor of the village, Michele Silicani (a survivor who was 10 when the raid occurred), called the verdict "a scandal" and said he would urge Italy's justice minister to lobby Germany to reopen the case.