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 . 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.

Early life

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.

Service to the Schutzstaffel

thumb|left|Priebke as a [[Schütze in the Allgemeine SS, 1936]]

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. 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.

Some of these prisoners had simply been residents of Via Rasella who were home at the time of the bombing; others had been arrested and tortured for resistance and communist-related activities. Not all of the partisans who were killed were members of the same resistance group. Members of the GAP, the PA, and Bandiera Rossa, in addition to the Clandestine Military Front, were all on the list of those to be executed. Furthermore, the scale and even the occurrence of this retaliation were unprecedented in Italy. Since the Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 and the subsequent overthrow of Mussolini, Communist anti-Fascists and members of the Italian Resistance had been practising guerrilla warfare against Axis troops.

Post-war

Escape to Argentina

thumb|214x214px|Priebke as "Otto Pape" in 1948

In post–World War II trials, Priebke was set to be tried for his role in the massacre, but he managed to escape from a British prison camp in Rimini, Italy, in 1946. After his time in South Tyrol, he went to Argentina. Though alleged to have been responsible for war crimes, Priebke lived in Argentina in the town Bariloche as a free man for 46 years. While there, he first worked as a dishwasher and waiter before opening a delicatessen. He also became the leader of the German-Argentine Cultural Association and travelled back and forth to Europe. He was put on a direct flight from Bariloche to Rome Ciampino Airport, a military airport close to the Ardeatine caves, where the executions had been carried out many years earlier.

Trials

Priebke in court

In court, Priebke declared himself not guilty. He did not deny what he had done, but he denied any moral responsibility.

Priebke appealed the case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, where he claimed he had no choice but to obey Hitler's orders, a defence not accepted during the Nuremberg trials (see the Nuremberg Defense and Nuremberg Principle IV). Moreover, it has been underlined by many that in the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine, 335 died, five more than required by the order "10 Italians executed for each German killed". These five extra victims were the responsibility of Priebke alone because he was given the duty of checking the list. This led to angry protests, and the judge's decision was overturned.

A number of Italian conservative figures defended Priebke on the grounds that he was only acting to obey orders: Italian journalist Indro Montanelli, who had lost two friends in the massacre of the Fosse Ardeatine, nonetheless wrote a private letter to Priebke that was later published in Il Giornale on 2013 by Fausto Biloslavo, arguing that he was only following orders; similar points of view were expressed by Vittorio Feltri, Giampiero Mughini, Vittorio Sgarbi, Guido Ceronetti, Anna Maria Ortese and Massimo Fini. In 2003 Senator Antonio Serena (National Alliance) argued that Priebke should have been pardoned by President Carlo Azeglio Ciampi, arguing that Priebke was suffering from "cruel and pointless behaviours" from a "Jewish lobby that spreads hate"; because of this position, Serena was expelled from National Alliance.

Death

Priebke died in Rome on 11 October 2013, at the age of 100. His last request, that his remains be returned to Argentina so he could be buried alongside his wife, was denied by the Argentinian government. The Diocese of Rome issued an "unprecedented ban" on holding his funeral in any Roman Catholic church in Rome. His hometown in Germany also refused to take his body, over fears that his place of burial could become "a pilgrimage site for neo-Nazis".

Following the refusal of the Diocese of Rome to officiate the funeral, Priebke's relatives turned to the Society of Saint Pius X (SSPX), a traditionalist Catholic group which is not in full communion with the Holy See; the SSPX accepted to perform the funeral in the church of their priory in Albano Laziale. During the funeral service, the police prevented clashes from breaking out between fascist sympathizers and anti-fascist protesters. The funeral eventually took place, albeit without the presence of any of his relatives, because his family was unable to enter the church due to the rioting.

Eventually, the coffin containing Priebke's body was seized by the Italian authorities, taken to a military base near Rome, and then buried "in a secret location," as his lawyer Paolo Giachini stated. Giachini said the agreement "satisfie[d] the family and ethical and spiritual requirements." According to L'Espresso, Priebke was buried in the cemetery of a former prison on an island, possibly Pianosa or Capraia.

Traditionalist Catholic priest Florian Abrahamowicz, a former member of the SSPX, celebrated a Mass in suffrage of Priebke in a chapel in Paese; the mayor of Resana, Loris Mazzorato (Lega Nord), was among those attending the Mass.

Erich Priebke has one child still alive as of February 2026, Ingo Priebke, aged 83, who lives in New York. His other son, Jorge Priebke, remained in Bariloche until his death in 2020.

Notes

References

  • The Massacre at the Ardeatine Caves, 24 March 1944
  • Trial Watch - a Swiss site re. Priebke's trial
  • Italians protest outside Priebke's office in July 2007
  • An interview with the Evil. A journey in the Italian forbidden memory- Academia.edu
  • Jewish Virtual Library Page