Since the territory of Marche was directly involved in the fighting, the interest of the German army group responsible for southern Italy concentrated on the use of auxiliaries and manpower for fortification and evacuation works, in particular those concerning the construction of the Gothic Line. This partly explains the relatively low numbers of workers sent from Marche to the Reich, since they were needed locally. Hand in hand with attempts at voluntary recruitment, the German authorities engaged in a series of roundups, often concomitant with those carried out by units of the Wehrmacht alongside Italian units, aimed at capturing partisans…
