News-Info-Alerts

Re: WW II POW War Crimes

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: June 16, 2002

"Nazi accused over Italian POW deaths
14 June 2002

HAMBURG - A witness testified Friday before a German court in Hamburg that a former Nazi SS officer on trial for World War II atrocities was in fact responsible for the killing of Italian POWs near Genoa in 1944.

Friedrich Engel, 93, is being tried for crimes when he was in charge of security in the Italian port of Genoa for the SS, or Schutzstaffel, the dreaded armed unit of the Nazi party.

The witness, Walter Emig, a former marine soldier now 79 years old, said: "Engel, being in charge of the security service in Genoa, had the supreme authority, he was the official supervising the executions."

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Start or join a discussionEngel, who was known as the "Butcher of Genoa", claims it was the Nazi navy which had been responsible for the killing of 59 prisoners in retaliation for a guerrilla attack on a German military cinema in which six people died.

He says he was only present at the executions as an "observer".

The witness, like others before him, said he was not aware that the executions had been ordered by the navy. He said Engel, being the most senior officer present, was only six to 8m away from the ditch in which the victims fell after being shot in the back.

According to the indictment, Engel was top SS man in Genoa and it was he who ordered the mass execution. He faces 59 counts of murder.
DPA"