The Death and Funeral of Erich Priebke
October 26, 2013
In this video, a mob attacks the priest Don Curzio Nitoglio, mistaking him for the celebrant of Priebke’s funeral mass.
DON VINCENZO writes:
Few will dispute the fact that the recent death of Erich Priebke was no great loss to anyone outside his immediate family. Indeed, to many Italians who gathered at the site of his interment, Priebke was a symbol of death, for he had been involved in the death of hundreds of Italians in the Andeatine Caves outside of Rome where, in retaliation for an attack on German troops in Rome in 1944, Hitler ordered the execution of ten Romans for every one Nazi soldier killed in the assault. Much of this is explained in Robert Katz’s account, Death in Rome, which later became a movie starring Richard Burton. (I have seen the plaque at that square in Rome that describes this event.)
All of this is well known in Italy, for the men and women who gathered at the funeral interment knew all about Captain Eric Priebke of the Nazi S.S. The funeral drew not only media attention, but also attracted an understandable fierce resistance by those whose family members had been murdered in those caves north of Rome. It should also be pointed out that Katz drew a clear line between the executions of 335 Italians, 70 of whom were Italian Jews, and the unwillingness of the then Pope Pius XII to try to stop the murders, for which Katz was sued for libel by Pope Pacelli’s family, but later acquitted by the highest Italian court. Read More »