ROME - Italy has for the first time paid compensation to victims of Nazi war crimes, giving 800,000 euros ($840,000) to the heirs of a man killed in a 1944 civilian massacre in Tuscany, a lawyer for the heirs and the Italian Treasury said on Wednesday.

The landmark decision, coming after decades of legal struggles, marks a significant shift in the Italian government's approach, potentially setting a precedent for the families of other victims of Nazi and fascist crimes.

Metello Ricciarini was killed along with 243 others in Civitella in Val di Chiana, about 220 kilometers north of Rome, on June 29, 1944, in a reprisal by German troops after two of them died in a shootout with Italian partisans.

"I express my satisfaction, of my mother Metella and of my relatives, who received the money from the economy ministry last week," said family lawyer Roberto Alboni, who is also the victim's nephew, adding it took two decades to get compensation.

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In 1962, Germany paid Italy 40 million Deutschmarks, worth just over 1 billion euros in today's money, to cover damage inflicted by Nazi forces on the Italian state and its citizens during World War Two.

That agreement left Italy liable to pay any future compensation demands from victims, but no action was taken for decades.

Then-prime minister Mario Draghi set up a fund worth 61 million euros in 2022 to cover growing compensation claims from victims and their descendants, hoping to close a dark chapter in Italy's history. Nazi troops who committed atrocities in Italy were routinely aided by local Fascists.

"This is an important first result in the battle to raise awareness about reparations for the heirs of victims of Nazi-fascist crimes", said Dario Parrini, a senator from the opposition center-left Democratic Party who has followed the issue.

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A study funded by the German government and published in 2016 estimated that 22,000 Italians were victims of Nazi war crimes, including up to 8,000 Jews deported to death camps. Thousands more Italians were forced to work as enslaved laborers in Germany.