It was the biggest massacre of religious figures during the Second World War, the report claimed.
The priests were killed for various reasons, said the study by local historians.
One was for sheltering harmless peasants in churches and convents, as well as wandering soldiers, Jews, people refusing to be enrolled in the Nazi puppet Republic of Salò forces, partisans and even ex-fascists.
The murders were carried out by an SS Panzer division that was also guilty of the second worst Nazi atrocity in WWII, in the Tuscan village of Sant’Anna di Stazzema.
In Sant’Anna di Stazzema, 560 unarmed people, including 130 children, were murdered.
ANSA
