July 1, 2004
SS massacre trial in Italy
Survivors of one of Italy's worst wartime atrocities relived their nightmare yesterday as six former junior SS officers were finally put on trial for the massacre of 560 people, mainly women, children and pensioners, in a Tuscan village in 1944.From the Telegraph.For 60 years Italy hid evidence of this atrocity and others in an office cabinet named the "cupboard of shame" to avoid embarrassment for Germany.
The six members of the 16th SS Reichsfuhrer division . . . refused to attend the trial at the military court in La Spezia, as they are entitled to under German law. They continue to live in tranquillity as pensioners. None has admitted taking part in the atrocity and some claim they were not even there.
But a seventh soldier from the division, Ludwig Goring, gave remarkably frank testimony which is likely to make him a star witness.
Posted by David on July 1, 2004 2:58 PM
So when will we see trials of american airmen/mass murdurers? 300,000 killed at Hamburg, 300,000 killed at Dresden, 800,000 killed at Tokyo etc.
Oh that's right, they only try soldiers of the _losing_ army don't they?
Posted by: John Doe on July 1, 2004 6:34 PM
"Strategic bombing" (i.e., targeting of civilians) was awful, but it is no way morally equivalent to the massacres perpetrated by the Nazis on the ground.
Bombing civilians started early in the war, and soon escalated in a brutal tit-for-tat. The Germans have a lot to answer for in this regard, going all the way back to the Zeppelin and Gotha raids of WW1 and the shelling of Paris (and don't forget unrestricted submarine warfare on civilian shipping); the litany proceeds through Guernica, Rotterdam, Coventry, and the Blitz. Nor did the Germans slacken any even as they lost air superiority; instead of calling for de-escalation, they responded with the V1 and V2.
As for the jibe about victors' justice, note that German bomber crews were not put on trial after the war, either.
Posted by: David on July 1, 2004 10:31 PM
gmail.com