​​At the beginning of August 1943, the German troops of the 'Hermann Göring' division were retreating from Randazzo towards Messina. On 10 August they were camped in contrada Sciambro, in the countryside around Castiglione. 

​Due to an attack (or according to other sources a theft), a reprisal was triggered in Castigilione. At the crack of dawn on 12 August, a truck with 40 German soldiers escorted by an armoured car burst into the town, firing at everyone in sight. 

​The German soldiers entered the houses shouting, brutally kicking people out and beating them with their rifles. One woman was thrown off the balcony and left on the pavement with fractured legs. They then took more than 200 people hostage (including children and elderly), locked them up in a dead-end alley in Via R. Margherita, and then dragged them forcefully to the locality of Cannizzu, herding them into a sheepfold. 

​​Negotiations began for their release, mediated by don Giosuè Russo, don Salvatore Savoca, and sister Anna Amelia Casini. The delegation immediately obtained the release of the Mayor Ignazio Travagliante, the doctor, and the pharmacist. On the morning of 14 August, all hostages were released, with an order to evacuate the town. In the meantime, the German forces raided animals, means of transport and basic necessities, and burned the houses. A total of 16 people, aged between 17 and 82, were killed, and twenty were seriously wounded. British troops arrived two days later. 

​On 14 October 1943, the 'Corriere di Sicilia' gave the first news of the massacre. On 1 June 1946, a plaque was placed on the wall of the Town Hall. 

​In 1963, writer Leonardo Sciascia wrote about the massacre, and in 2002, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi awarded the municipality a bronze medal. Between 2012 and 2013, research by Angelo Manita and Rosario Mangiameli made it possible to reconstruct the facts.​