Jewish groups reacted angrily to reports that Erich Priebke, a 93-year-old former SS officer found guilty of slaughtering hundreds of civilians in a World War II Nazi reprisal in Rome, would be allowed to go to work.
The head of Rome’s Jewish Community, Renzo Gattegna, noted that Priebke had already been granted house arrests because of his advanced age and that the decision sent out the wrong signals. “This is clearly another act of leniency towards a man who showed no mercy in killing 335 innocent civilians and has shown no remorse since.”
Priebke, who turns 94 next month, was handed a life sentence by a military tribunal in Rome in 1998 for his role in the 1944 Fosse Ardeatine massacre, which saw 335 men shot in the back of the head in a cave in the outskirts of the Italian capital. He justified his actions by saying he was only following orders from the Gestapo chief of Rome.
Judicial officials had granted Priebke permission to leave his home and work in his lawyer’s office in the central Monti neighbourhood.
Judges also said Priebke would be allowed to leave his lawyer’s office for brief periods “only to satisfy essential requirements.”
(Source: ET)
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6 Responses
They have every right to be angry. Why should former Nazis be allowed to walk around free when their victims and their descendants are still suffering from their crimes many, many years later?
This guy is strange, he is 93 yrs old and going to work in a lawyers office. what does he do there? Life sentence in Rome – why wasn’t he incarcerated..
lets ask his lawyer — probably the chairman (rais) of the palestinian authority, wh’ose doctorate (from moscow university — is that a legit university) is in holocaust denial!
hey, if its good enough for condi rice, etc., why shouldnt it be good enough for the italians (or other europeans)
lets find his address and go visit him…. if we take one bone for every dead there wont be enough to go around.
where is elie wiesel on this ? the adl?
DISGUSTING!!
He was a part of the military. Although he was in charge of killing it is no different than US soldiers going to war in Iraq, killing innocent people and coming back to the States to live a normal life. Do you think maybe he has shown no remorse since because maybe he does not want to relive his past and the duties that he was ordered to carry out? What is disguisting is how one sided people from anywhere other than Germany view the actions of the Germans in WWII.