This year's G8 summit is to be held in L’Aquila in Abruzzi, the region that was hit by a devastating earthquake in April this year. Before the summit meeting, Chancellor Angela Merkel visited the village of Onna, where Germany's Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) has been providing support in the wake of the earthquake.
Major damage in the wake of the Italian earthquake
Photo: picture-alliance/ dpa
For the Chancellor it was very important to gain a personal impression of the extent of the destruction. “It will further encourage us to do all we can to provide rapid assistance,” she declared.
"We have become friends"
There are also historical reasons for the support Germany is providing in Onna. On 11 June 1944 the German army shot 17 civilians here.
"Onna is an example of the terrible destruction wreaked by the earthquake,” said Angela Merkel after visiting the village. She is, however, grateful that Germany can show today, after the massacre of 1944 that, “the world has changed, and Germany can help in this area”.
In spring this year, 65 years after the massacre during the Second World War, Onna was once again a victim of fate. An earthquake destroyed ninety percent of the buildings in the village. Of the 280 or so inhabitants, 41 lost their lives. Every family lost loved ones. Survivors are still living in tents on a field outside the village. Germany’s Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) is now helping put up proper buildings so that the villagers can leave the tents and have a proper roof over their heads.
"I believe that we Germans can help these people through partnership, through our Embassy and through the THW, so that they have a home once more as rapidly as possible,” declared the Chancellor. “We have become friends with the local people.”
The German government is providing three million euros to rebuild the church in Onna. This has a symbolic character for the Chancellor. “Now at last we can rebuild something in a place where in the past we were responsible for destruction.”
The Federal Agency for Technical Relief (THW) started work in Onna very soon after the earthquake and is set to stay there for several months to come. It is the only foreign relief team that has been admitted to the region.