A captain and three guards will face court martials for the escape of Nazi war criminal Herbert Kappler, who killed 335 Italians, including 70 Jews, a Rome military judge decided today.
Kappler, who was Gestapo chief in Rome during World War II, died eight days ago in West Germany where he resided after his wife, Anneliese, smuggled him out of Rome’s Celio military hospital last Aug.15. He was being treated at the time for terminal cancer and was serving a life prison term for the reprisal slayings at Rome’s Ardeatine caves. The Italians were executed after partisans killed 32 Nazi storm troopers.
Examining Judge Col. Fabrizio Gentile ordered court martials on charges of gross disobedience and failure to supervise their prisoner for Capt. Norberto Capozzella and constables Luigi Salso, Oronzo Pavone and Giuseppe Giovanelli. All are in the paramilitary Carabinieri police force and subject to military law. Gentile said Kappler’s wife lowered his body from his ward window to aides waiting in a car below.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
