Mario Roatta

Mario Roatta
Chief of Staff of the Royal Italian Army
In office 24 March 1941 – 20 January 1942
Preceded by	Rodolfo Graziani
Succeeded by	Vittorio Ambrosio
In office 1 June 1943 – 18 November 1943
Preceded by	Giuseppe De Stefanis
Succeeded by	Paolo Berardi
Personal details
Born	(1887-02-02)2 February 1887 Modena, Kingdom of Italy
Died	7 January 1968(1968-01-07) (aged 80) Rome, Italy
Spouse	Ines Mancini[1]
Children	1
Nickname	Black Beast[2]
Military service
Allegiance	Kingdom of Italy
Branch/service	Royal Italian Army
Years of service	1906–1943
Rank	General
Commands	Corpo Truppe Volontarie Flechas Division Italian Second Army
Battles/wars	World War I Spanish Civil War Battle of Málaga Battle of Guadalajara World War II in Yugoslavia Invasion of Yugoslavia Case White

Mario Roatta (2 February 1887 – 7 January 1968) was an Italian general. After serving in World War I he rose to command the Corpo Truppe Volontarie which assisted Francisco Franco's force during the Spanish Civil War. He was the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Italian Army from October 1939 to March 1941 and from March 1941 to January 1942 its Chief of Staff and helped in preparing for the invasion of Yugoslavia. Roatta would gain the nickname "Black Beast of Yugoslavia” due to his brutal methods of repression.^[3]

He is best known for his role as the commander of the Italian Second Army in its repression against civilians, in the Slovene- and Croatian-inhabited areas of Italian-occupied and annexed Yugoslavia during World War II.^[4] He constructed a policy in which he attempted to eliminate the Yugoslav Partisans, helped manage relations with the authorities of the puppet Independent State of Croatia, and "greatly advanced and systematized" collaboration with the Chetniks. As a "manifesto for repression in the Yugoslav territories", Roatta issued Circular 3C which urged "ethnic clearance" be carried out and stressed the need for "complete cleansing" of Slovene-inhabited areas. In line with Circular 3C's objectives Roatta ordered summary executions, hostage taking, reprisals, internments, burning of houses and whole villages, and the deportation of 25,000 people, who were placed in Italian concentration camps at Rab, Gonars, Monigo (Treviso), Renicci d'Anghiari, Chiesanuova and elsewhere. The survivors received no compensation from the Italian state after the war.^[2] The deportees had formed about 7.5 percent of the total population of the Italian-annexed Province of Ljubljana.