On September 21, 1943, two German soldiers assigned to a combat battalion entered a jewelry shop in Matera. Their intentions will never be known, but the shop owner suspected them of theft. By then, the Allies were marching up the boot and local villagers had grown bold enough to confront the remnants of German occupiers.
A bystander notified the local police of the suspected attempted robbery. In response, the police entered the shop catching the Germans still there. There was a confrontation and the two soldiers were killed.
This sparked an uprising, the boiling over of a simmering pot of hatred as the Materani took up arms against their oppressors. More German troops were killed by townsmen armed with pistols and carbines.
The Germans responded with force, using a cannon to blow up a
