The Ledro Valley during WWI 1914-1918

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During the First World War the Ledro Valley was part of that front-line that the Austro-Hungarian included in the Rajon III (S¸d Tirol), sector of Giudicarie Valley. The war in this zone has been characterized by a big Austrian effort to prepare a good defensive line. They built strong barriers and military trenches to protect and block the Giudicarie and the area of Riva del Garda. When Ledro became front-line, its inhabitants have been deported, at the end of May 1915, to the central provinces of the empire, to Bohemia and to Moravia. This mass-exodus regarded thousands of families (about 70 000 people) that lived in the strategic zones of Trentino. They had to live for more than three years in big troubles, far away from their homes, their jobs and their properties. Also before this exodus many people in Ledro Valley, like in the rest of Trentino, have been arrested because suspected to take a liking to Italy. First they have been shut in the prisons of Riva del Garda and then sent to the concentration camp of Katzenau, near Linz. The war ravaged the Ledro and the Concei valleys destroying the villages, which have been bombarded several times.