Erich Priebke - History

History

The massacre of Fosse Ardeatine took place in Italy during World War II. On 23 March 1944, 33 German soldiers (members of an SS military police battalion from South Tyrol) were killed when members of the Italian Resistance set off a bomb close to their column, and attacked the soldiers with firearms and grenades while they were marching along Via Rasella, in Rome. This attack was led by the GAP Gruppi di Azione Partigiana.

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 Herbert 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 were the members of Bandiera Rossa (Red Flag), a non-mainstream Communist (Trotskyist) military Resistance group, along with more than 70 Jews.

On the 24 March, led by SS officers, Erich 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 back and then shot in the neck. Many were forced to kneel down over the bodies of those who had been killed before them. During the killings, it was found that a mistake had been made and that five additional people who were not on the list had been brought up to the caves.

There were arguments among the Nazi leadership in Rome and between Hitler and his command over whether 50, 30, or 10 Italians should be killed for every German. Priebke is often accused of murder because an additional 5 people were killed who were not on the list of 330 condemned by the "ten to one" rule. As a result Priebke's trial strongly focused on these 5 extra killings. Priebke was responsible for the list and his complicity in those killings ruled out any possible justification for Priebke's behaviour on the basis of "obedience to official orders".

In order to fill the numerical quota; many of the prisoners at via Tasso and Regina Coeli prison who happened to be available at the time were sent to their deaths by the Nazis at the Fosse Ardeatine. 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, however. 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 was unprecedented. 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 practicing guerilla warfare against Axis troops.

The cultural and political fallout from the Fosse Ardeatine, and more generally from the Fascist movement after World War II, continues today. Alessandro Portelli's The Order Has Been Carried Out is an important work on the action in via Rasella and the Fosse Ardeatine.