The Second Day

This chapter describes the resumption of the massacre on Saturday 20th February, the transportation of bodies by fleets of military vehicles to incineration sites in the city’s northern suburb of Gulele, and conditions in the temporary detention camps. Suspected by the Italians of involvement in the plot to assassinate Graziani, the Anglo-Indian business community of Mohamedally suffered persecution by the Italian military.

Carta Bianca

This chapter describes the core of what came to be known as the Massacre of Addis Ababa, which involved the indiscriminate slaughter of thousands of unsuspecting residents of Addis Ababa living in prescribed districts. The massacre, which was conducted over three days, was authorized at the highest levels of the Fascist Party in Rome, and organized by the head of the Party in Addis Ababa, Guido Cortese. The massacre was publicly announced at 4:30 pm on Friday 19th February. It began 30 minutes later and continued through the night. The methods of killing involved guns, grenades, clubs, bayonets, vehicles and whatever weapons the Italian Blackshirts and Fascist civilians could find. In the process, Blackshirts invaded the French legation. Through the night the Italians burned houses down, frequently with the residents locked inside. The Italians also attempted to burn down the cathedral of St George.

Epilogue

The Epilogue summarizes the demise of Mussolini, the fate of the Blackshirts, and the subsequent careers of the key Fascists including Rodolfo Graziani and Guido Cortese. The lives of the major Ethiopian eye-witnesses are recounted, and the recent upsurge of Fascist sympathy in Italy is noted, particularly in terms of a resurgence of interest in Graziani as an Italian war hero, which has been countered in Ethiopia by protests by former resistance fighters and their families.

Death in the Afternoon

This chapter focuses on the curfew declared by the Italians one hour after the attack on Graziani, the arrests and detention of Ethiopians that followed, and atrocities carried out by Blackshirts and Fascist civilians in Addis Ababa during the course of the afternoon. An account is also provided of the siege laid to the city by the Italian military, deploying armored cars, tanks, and the Italian Air Force. The chapter provides information on the establishment of temporary detention camps, based on the testimony of eye witnesses.

An Hour of Mayhem

Based on both Ethiopian and foreign sources, this chapter describes how, after the attack on Graziani, the Italian military cordoned off a circle of radius approximately 360 meters around the perimeter of the Gennete Liul Palace and killed many of the Ethiopians within that area between noon and 1 pm on Friday 19th February. The account includes important testimony by the American, British and French envoys, and from several eye witnesses including Sara Gebre Iyyesus and Temesgen Gebre.

Introduction

On this cool February morning the coarse, unkempt field grass on the steep slopes above the Qechené River—at this time of year little more than a stream—looks much as it did in the 1880s, when King Menelik of Shewa first broke ground to begin building on the hilltop with its commanding vistas across the vast plain below to accommodate his new capital of Addis Ababa. In the morning mist a distant dog barks, and a few early risers on the road pull their ...

The Cover-Up

The author describes how the Italian government attempted to deny or minimize the reports of the massacre in the international press. Although the British, American and French envoys wrote detailed reports, they were largely ignored by their respective governments. The British government, in particular wanted to appease Mussolini to prevent him joining forces with Adolf Hitler’s Nazi movement, so they avoided charging Mussolini with war crimes. However, following Germany’s invasion of Poland, which led Britain to declare war on Germany, in 1940 Mussolini declared war on Britain, which meant that Italy was now Britain’s enemy. Deploying Commonwealth troops, Britain invaded Italian-occupied Ethiopia and arranged for Emperor Haile Selassie to leave his exile in England and return to Addis Ababa. Ethiopia attempted to have the Italian officials who had authorized atrocities in Ethiopia committed to trial under the UN War Crimes Commission, but failed due to further obstruction by the British government, which favored an Italian government run by former Fascists as a bulwark against the rising tide of communism in Europe.

The Reckoning

In this chapter the author attempts to resolve several key questions not previously answered by scholars, including identifying those responsible for authorizing the massacre, those who carried it out, the extent of civilian involvement, and the demographics of the victims. Attention is drawn to individuals who attempted to mitigate or stop the massacre. Finally, the author conducts a detailed analysis of the likely death-toll of the massacre, which no historian has previously attempted. Consisting of three independent estimates, the analysis concludes that around 19,200 Ethiopians died in the massacre of Addis Ababa, constituting 19-20% of the population of the city at that time.

Roman Justice

Viceroy Graziani, who had begun to recover in hospital from his injuries, took the opportunity to eliminate Ethiopia’s educated elite in a pogrom of executions orchestrated by a series of tribunals. In Addis Ababa and Ethiopia’s secondary towns. Accused of involvement in the assassination attempt, thousands of Ethiopians were arrested, and the sentence in virtually every case was death. The actual plotters, who constituted only a handful of young men, scattered. Some were arrested; others left the city. Two of the executors of the plot, Eritreans Moges Asgedom and Abriha Deboch, who had been working for the Italians, were tracked down and executed. All young Ethiopians with secondary or tertiary education who could be found by the Italians were executed, as were all the Amhara community leaders, priests and elders across Ethiopia. Graziani’s insistence on eliminating the Amhara notables has been labelled by some scholars as genocide.

The Aftermath

This chapter describes the immediate aftermath of the three-day massacre, including the efforts by the French and American envoys, Albert Bodard and Cornelius Van Engert, to manage the deteriorating security situation in the city. Detailed accounts are provided of life in the temporary detention camps and prisons of Addis Ababa, which were filled to overflowing, and which were the scene of many deaths from hunger, thirst and ill-treatment. The chapter also explains how the Patriot movement in the rural areas was swollen by the arrival of Ethiopians fleeing the massacre in Addis Ababa.