SOBIBÓR - Holocaust Handbooks

J. GRAF, T. KUES, C. MATTOGNO, SOBIBÓR 377
“[Chief of execution SS captain] Schuetz gathered the entire
squad and warned: ‘If anyone believes he doesn’t have to shoot,
then he can join the hostages straight away, because he will then be
shot as well.’”
His wife and children would have faced misery. So he did what he
was asked to do. We must remember that at the time such reprisals were
a common practice and as such condoned by the then rules of warfare,
and they were practiced by the Italian army as well. 1109
In 1948 a trial was held over the officers involved in the reprisal
(NCOs and enlisted men had not even been prosecuted by the Italian
authorities!). All defendants were acquitted, except for police chief
Herbert Kappler who was sentenced for having caused another 10 hostages
to be shot after the death of a 34 th German policeman. This was
considered to have been an excess on his part. At that time Erich
Priebke, who had escaped from British captivity some months before,
lived in the mountains of Southern Tyrol, unknown to the judicial authorities.
This was unfortunate, as it should turn out, because he would
otherwise have been acquitted just like his officer comrades, which
would have saved himself the tragedy that ensued decades later.
After the war Priebke emigrated with his family to Argentina, where
a Jewish journalist hunted him down in 1994. He was extradited to Italy
a year later and tried in 1996, but acquitted because of the statute of limitations.
A band of mostly Jewish hooligans then occupied the premises
and took the judges hostage. After “hectic negotiations with the
Jewish community,” 1110 “justice” minister Flick ordered a retrial. In
1998, after a series of appeals, the 85-year-old defendant was sentenced
to life imprisonment, in keeping with the demands of the Jewish organizations.
Magnanimously he was allowed to serve his time in house arrest.
Ever since he has been living in the house of his lawyer and friend
Paolo Giacchini and lacks nothing but his freedom. When he goes for a
walk, the man, now 96 years old, is always accompanied by two Carabinieri.
1111
1109 For this see the legal expert report by Karl Siegert, “Reprisals and Orders from Higher
Up,” in: G. Rudolf (ed.), op. cit. (note 34), pp. 530-550.
1110 Il Messagero, 2 August 1996.
1111 For this see E. Priebke, P. Giachini, op. cit. (note 1108); German: ibid., 2005; Pierangelo
Maurizio, Via Rasella, Cinquant’ anni di menzogne, Maurizio Editione, Roma 1996; Mario
Spataro, Repressaglia, edizione Settimo Sigillo, Roma 1996; Gernot Gysecke, Der
Fall Priebke, Verlagsgesellschaft Berg, Berg am Starnberger See 1997.