The street that Hitler wanted to erase from history - BBC Reel Benedetta Perilli is an Italian journalist who recently moved into a beautiful apartment in the very heart of Rome. But there’s a hitch. The house is also the site of one the biggest urban massacres in Europe’s recent history. On 23 March 1944, Italian partisans from the Patriotic Action Group placed a bomb at the corner of Rasella street, and killed 33 Nazi soldiers. As an act of retaliation, Hitler ordered to kill 10 Italians for every German soldier that died that day. In total, 335 people were executed and buried in the Fosse Ardeatine mass grave, marking one of the darkest moments in Italian history, and a decisive turning point in the war. The brutal reprisal sent a clear signal to the Allied Forces, who decided to intervene.