Nazi crimes, Ristori Fund pays but Germany can intervene

Eighty years after the end of the Second World War, there are wounds that are struggling to heal, those caused by the slaughters of civilians above all. Horrors like that of the Fosse Ardeatine or of Sant'Anna di Stazzema must not be forgotten. "We are here to remember, because memory recalls responsibility," the President of the Republic, Sergio Mattarella, had declared in Marzabotto on 29 September 2024. The head of state had then turned to his German counterpart, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, speaking of the need for reconciliation: 'Today, your presence, dear President Steinmeier, is a further incentive to go forward together in building the future,' he had commented.

Peace-making, in cases such as these, passes through justice. It was precisely the search for justice that moved the heirs of the victims of the massacre committed between the spring and summer of 1944 in Civitella Val di Chiana and Vallucciole, in the province of Arezzo.

With Ordinance 460/2026, the third civil section of the Italian Supreme Court reiterated the principle, already stated in Ordinance 23669/2025, according to which compensation "for consequential damages for war crimes, committed in Italy or in any case to the prejudice of Italian citizens by the forces of the Third Reich, can only be executed through the Ristori Fund" set up by the Ministry of Economy and Finance in 2022. In order to be able to access the Fund, a judgement with the object of the ascertainment and liquidation of damages which has become final is required. The fact that the Italian state has assumed the burden of monetary compensation of the victims and their heirs is not sufficient, however, to argue that Italia should fully replace Germany.

The Federal Republic of Germany therefore retains the right to intervene as a defendant in court proceedings concerning the assessment of liability. Notification to the Avvocatura dello Stato is therefore no more than an administrative fulfilment. The rationale is to balance two principles of constitutional rank: on the one hand, the protection of rights up to enforcement and, on the other hand, the observance of obligations entered into with international treaties. As regards the forum of jurisdiction, the Court further explains, where no Italian administration is 'even originally a defendant' it is the ordinary rules that prevail.

Therefore, Article 25 of the Code of Civil Procedure, according to which - in cases in which an administration is a party - the court of the place where the office of the State's Attorney is located in whose district the court that would have jurisdiction under the ordinary rules is situated has jurisdiction, does not apply. The holder of passive legitimacy remains the foreign State and not the Italia State. It is not the ministry that has the right to intervene in the proceedings "ad adiuvandum to support the arguments of the defendant foreign State".