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Erich Priebke
Erich Priebke (29 July 1913 – 11 October 2013) was a German mid-level Schutzstaffel (SS) commander in the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) of Nazi Germany. In 1996, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy for commanding the unit which was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre in Rome on 24 March 1944 in which 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 men of the German SS Police Regiment Bozen. Priebke was one of the men held responsible for this mass execution. After the end of World War II in Europe, he fled to Argentina, where he lived for almost 50 years.
In 1991, Priebke's participation in the Rome massacre was denounced in Esteban Buch's book El pintor de la Suiza Argentina. In 1994, 50 years after the massacre, Priebke felt he could then talk about the incident and was interviewed by American ABC News reporter Sam Donaldson. This caused outrage among people who had not forgotten the incident and led to his extradition to Italy and a trial which lasted more than four years.
Priebke was born on 29 July 1913, at Hennigsdorf, which was then in the Kingdom of Prussia. Little is known of his early life but Priebke told interviewers that his parents died when he was young and that he was reared mainly by an uncle before earning a living as a waiter in Berlin, at The Savoy Hotel, London, and on the Italian Riviera.
Priebke married Alicia Stoll; the couple had two sons: Jorge, born in 1940 and Ingo, born in 1942.
From 1936, he worked for the Waffen-SS and later for the Gestapo as an interpreter, and because of his knowledge of Italian, he was based in Rome beginning in 1941. While there, he worked under Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler, who reportedly delegated relations with the Holy See to him.
The massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine took place in Italy during World War II. On 23 March 1944, 33 German personnel of the SS Police Regiment Bozen were killed when the Italian Resistance set off a bomb and attacked the SS men with firearms and grenades while they were marching along Via Rasella in Rome. This attack was led by the Patriotic Action Groups or Gruppi di Azione Patriottica (GAP).
Adolf Hitler is reported, but never confirmed, to have ordered that within 24 hours, ten condemned Italians were to be shot for each dead German. Commander Kappler in Rome quickly compiled a list of 320 prisoners to be killed. Kappler voluntarily added ten more names to the list when the 33rd German died after the partisan attack. The total number of people executed at the Fosse Ardeatine was 335, mostly Italian. The largest cohesive group among those executed was the members of Bandiera Rossa (Red Flag), a dissident-communist military resistance group, along with more than 70 Jews.
On 24 March, led by SS officers Priebke and Karl Hass, the victims were killed inside the Ardeatine caves in groups of five. They were led into the caves with their hands tied behind their backs and then shot in the neck. Many were forced to kneel down over the bodies of those who had already been killed. During the killings, it was found that a mistake had been made and that five additional people who were not on the "ten to one" list had been brought up to the caves. Priebke was responsible for the list, and his complicity in those 5 additional killings ruled out any possible justification for his behaviour on the basis of "obedience to official orders." As a result, Priebke's trial strongly focused on these extra killings.
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Erich Priebke
Erich Priebke (29 July 1913 – 11 October 2013) was a German mid-level Schutzstaffel (SS) commander in the Sicherheitspolizei (SiPo) of Nazi Germany. In 1996, he was convicted of war crimes in Italy for commanding the unit which was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre in Rome on 24 March 1944 in which 335 Italian civilians were killed in retaliation for a partisan attack that killed 33 men of the German SS Police Regiment Bozen. Priebke was one of the men held responsible for this mass execution. After the end of World War II in Europe, he fled to Argentina, where he lived for almost 50 years.
In 1991, Priebke's participation in the Rome massacre was denounced in Esteban Buch's book El pintor de la Suiza Argentina. In 1994, 50 years after the massacre, Priebke felt he could then talk about the incident and was interviewed by American ABC News reporter Sam Donaldson. This caused outrage among people who had not forgotten the incident and led to his extradition to Italy and a trial which lasted more than four years.
Priebke was born on 29 July 1913, at Hennigsdorf, which was then in the Kingdom of Prussia. Little is known of his early life but Priebke told interviewers that his parents died when he was young and that he was reared mainly by an uncle before earning a living as a waiter in Berlin, at The Savoy Hotel, London, and on the Italian Riviera.
Priebke married Alicia Stoll; the couple had two sons: Jorge, born in 1940 and Ingo, born in 1942.
From 1936, he worked for the Waffen-SS and later for the Gestapo as an interpreter, and because of his knowledge of Italian, he was based in Rome beginning in 1941. While there, he worked under Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler, who reportedly delegated relations with the Holy See to him.
The massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine took place in Italy during World War II. On 23 March 1944, 33 German personnel of the SS Police Regiment Bozen were killed when the Italian Resistance set off a bomb and attacked the SS men with firearms and grenades while they were marching along Via Rasella in Rome. This attack was led by the Patriotic Action Groups or Gruppi di Azione Patriottica (GAP).
Adolf Hitler is reported, but never confirmed, to have ordered that within 24 hours, ten condemned Italians were to be shot for each dead German. Commander Kappler in Rome quickly compiled a list of 320 prisoners to be killed. Kappler voluntarily added ten more names to the list when the 33rd German died after the partisan attack. The total number of people executed at the Fosse Ardeatine was 335, mostly Italian. The largest cohesive group among those executed was the members of Bandiera Rossa (Red Flag), a dissident-communist military resistance group, along with more than 70 Jews.
On 24 March, led by SS officers Priebke and Karl Hass, the victims were killed inside the Ardeatine caves in groups of five. They were led into the caves with their hands tied behind their backs and then shot in the neck. Many were forced to kneel down over the bodies of those who had already been killed. During the killings, it was found that a mistake had been made and that five additional people who were not on the "ten to one" list had been brought up to the caves. Priebke was responsible for the list, and his complicity in those 5 additional killings ruled out any possible justification for his behaviour on the basis of "obedience to official orders." As a result, Priebke's trial strongly focused on these extra killings.