News-Info-Alerts

Re: Former SS Officer Sentenced For Murdering POWs

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: July 08, 2002

"Ex-SS man gets 7 years for killing of Italians
 Steven Erlanger The New York Times

BERLIN - In what could be one of Germany's last trials of Nazis, a Hamburg court Friday sentenced a former SS officer to seven years in prison for ordering the reprisal killing of 59 Italian prisoners in 1944.

.Friedrich Engel, now 93 years old, showed no emotion as the judge read out the guilty verdict. He was a major in command of the SS intelligence unit in Genoa, in northern Italy, in May 1944, when a partisan attack on a movie theater killed five German soldiers. The Italians were trying to drive out the Germans, who had occupied their former ally after the fall of Benito Mussolini.

.Engel was convicted of ordering the execution of the Italian prisoners, naval commandos who were chained together and shot one after another at the Turchino mountain pass. They were forced to stand in groups of six on a plank over a rough grave dug by Jewish prisoners and then buried where they fell.

.Engel blamed Nazi naval officers for the shootings and testified that he did not supervise the executions, although he admitted that he was present and had approved the list of prisoners to be shot. After the verdict, Engel was allowed to return home to await health tests to determine whether he is fit to serve prison time. His lawyer, Udo Kneip, said he would talk to his client about an appeal.

.During the trial, which began May 7, Engel expressed regret for the killings but said they were justified by the rules of war, citing reprisals against prisoners by Italy and the United States and The Hague convention on war.

.Walter Emig, 79, a German submariner who witnessed the killings, had testified that Engel had been in charge and had shown a junior officer how to finish off a wounded prisoner by shooting him in the head. Engel, addressed by the judge as Dr. Engel because of his degree in education, was convicted in absentia by an Italian court in 1999 for killing at least 246 Italian prisoners in four separate incidents.

.German law prevents the extradition of German citizens for crimes committed abroad.

.Before the verdict Friday, Engel told reporters in Hamburg: "I have two wars behind me and in my youth I learned that toughness is good for you. I have learned my whole life to react with toughness."

.The presiding judge, Rolf Seedorf, said, "It was a cruel and illegal killing," but he cited the length of time since the crime and the unevenness of witness testimony for handing down a lesser sentence than the life imprisonment the prosecutor demanded. The death penalty is illegal in Germany and the rest of the European Union.

.Engel had lived in Hamburg for decades until German television reporters making a documentary found him. Italy then pressed Germany to put him on trial. He had been investigated by Hamburg authorities in 1969 for his role in Nazi executions in Italy but the case was dropped the same year; the files explaining why have disappeared.


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BERLIN In what could be one of Germany's last trials of Nazis, a Hamburg court Friday sentenced a former SS officer to seven years in prison for ordering the reprisal killing of 59 Italian prisoners in 1944.
.
Friedrich Engel, now 93 years old, showed no emotion as the judge read out the guilty verdict. He was a major in command of the SS intelligence unit in Genoa, in northern Italy, in May 1944, when a partisan attack on a movie theater killed five German soldiers. The Italians were trying to drive out the Germans, who had occupied their former ally after the fall of Benito Mussolini.
.
Engel was convicted of ordering the execution of the Italian prisoners, naval commandos who were chained together and shot one after another at the Turchino mountain pass. They were forced to stand in groups of six on a plank over a rough grave dug by Jewish prisoners and then buried where they fell.
.
Engel blamed Nazi naval officers for the shootings and testified that he did not supervise the executions, although he admitted that he was present and had approved the list of prisoners to be shot. After the verdict, Engel was allowed to return home to await health tests to determine whether he is fit to serve prison time. His lawyer, Udo Kneip, said he would talk to his client about an appeal.
.
During the trial, which began May 7, Engel expressed regret for the killings but said they were justified by the rules of war, citing reprisals against prisoners by Italy and the United States and The Hague convention on war.
.
Walter Emig, 79, a German submariner who witnessed the killings, had testified that Engel had been in charge and had shown a junior officer how to finish off a wounded prisoner by shooting him in the head. Engel, addressed by the judge as Dr. Engel because of his degree in education, was convicted in absentia by an Italian court in 1999 for killing at least 246 Italian prisoners in four separate incidents.
.
German law prevents the extradition of German citizens for crimes committed abroad.
.
Before the verdict Friday, Engel told reporters in Hamburg: "I have two wars behind me and in my youth I learned that toughness is good for you. I have learned my whole life to react with toughness."
.
The presiding judge, Rolf Seedorf, said, "It was a cruel and illegal killing," but he cited the length of time since the crime and the unevenness of witness testimony for handing down a lesser sentence than the life imprisonment the prosecutor demanded. The death penalty is illegal in Germany and the rest of the European Union.
.
Engel had lived in Hamburg for decades until German television reporters making a documentary found him. Italy then pressed Germany to put him on trial. He had been investigated by Hamburg authorities in 1969 for his role in Nazi executions in Italy but the case was dropped the same year; the files explaining why have disappeared.
BERLIN In what could be one of Germany's last trials of Nazis, a Hamburg court Friday sentenced a former SS officer to seven years in prison for ordering the reprisal killing of 59 Italian prisoners in 1944.
.
Friedrich Engel, now 93 years old, showed no emotion as the judge read out the guilty verdict. He was a major in command of the SS intelligence unit in Genoa, in northern Italy, in May 1944, when a partisan attack on a movie theater killed five German soldiers. The Italians were trying to drive out the Germans, who had occupied their former ally after the fall of Benito Mussolini.
.
Engel was convicted of ordering the execution of the Italian prisoners, naval commandos who were chained together and shot one after another at the Turchino mountain pass. They were forced to stand in groups of six on a plank over a rough grave dug by Jewish prisoners and then buried where they fell.
.
Engel blamed Nazi naval officers for the shootings and testified that he did not supervise the executions, although he admitted that he was present and had approved the list of prisoners to be shot. After the verdict, Engel was allowed to return home to await health tests to determine whether he is fit to serve prison time. His lawyer, Udo Kneip, said he would talk to his client about an appeal.
.
During the trial, which began May 7, Engel expressed regret for the killings but said they were justified by the rules of war, citing reprisals against prisoners by Italy and the United States and The Hague convention on war.
.
Walter Emig, 79, a German submariner who witnessed the killings, had testified that Engel had been in charge and had shown a junior officer how to finish off a wounded prisoner by shooting him in the head. Engel, addressed by the judge as Dr. Engel because of his degree in education, was convicted in absentia by an Italian court in 1999 for killing at least 246 Italian prisoners in four separate incidents.
.
German law prevents the extradition of German citizens for crimes committed abroad.
.
Before the verdict Friday, Engel told reporters in Hamburg: "I have two wars behind me and in my youth I learned that toughness is good for you. I have learned my whole life to react with toughness."
.
The presiding judge, Rolf Seedorf, said, "It was a cruel and illegal killing," but he cited the length of time since the crime and the unevenness of witness testimony for handing down a lesser sentence than the life imprisonment the prosecutor demanded. The death penalty is illegal in Germany and the rest of the European Union.
.
Engel had lived in Hamburg for decades until German television reporters making a documentary found him. Italy then pressed Germany to put him on trial. He had been investigated by Hamburg authorities in 1969 for his role in Nazi executions in Italy but the case was dropped the same year; the files explaining why have disappeared.
BERLIN In what could be one of Germany's last trials of Nazis, a Hamburg court Friday sentenced a former SS officer to seven years in prison for ordering the reprisal killing of 59 Italian prisoners in 1944.
.
Friedrich Engel, now 93 years old, showed no emotion as the judge read out the guilty verdict. He was a major in command of the SS intelligence unit in Genoa, in northern Italy, in May 1944, when a partisan attack on a movie theater killed five German soldiers. The Italians were trying to drive out the Germans, who had occupied their former ally after the fall of Benito Mussolini.
.
Engel was convicted of ordering the execution of the Italian prisoners, naval commandos who were chained together and shot one after another at the Turchino mountain pass. They were forced to stand in groups of six on a plank over a rough grave dug by Jewish prisoners and then buried where they fell.
.
Engel blamed Nazi naval officers for the shootings and testified that he did not supervise the executions, although he admitted that he was present and had approved the list of prisoners to be shot. After the verdict, Engel was allowed to return home to await health tests to determine whether he is fit to serve prison time. His lawyer, Udo Kneip, said he would talk to his client about an appeal.
.
During the trial, which began May 7, Engel expressed regret for the killings but said they were justified by the rules of war, citing reprisals against prisoners by Italy and the United States and The Hague convention on war.
.
Walter Emig, 79, a German submariner who witnessed the killings, had testified that Engel had been in charge and had shown a junior officer how to finish off a wounded prisoner by shooting him in the head. Engel, addressed by the judge as Dr. Engel because of his degree in education, was convicted in absentia by an Italian court in 1999 for killing at least 246 Italian prisoners in four separate incidents.
.
German law prevents the extradition of German citizens for crimes committed abroad.
.
Before the verdict Friday, Engel told reporters in Hamburg: "I have two wars behind me and in my youth I learned that toughness is good for you. I have learned my whole life to react with toughness."
.
The presiding judge, Rolf Seedorf, said, "It was a cruel and illegal killing," but he cited the length of time since the crime and the unevenness of witness testimony for handing down a lesser sentence than the life imprisonment the prosecutor demanded. The death penalty is illegal in Germany and the rest of the European Union.
.
Engel had lived in Hamburg for decades until German television reporters making a documentary found him. Italy then pressed Germany to put him on trial. He had been investigated by Hamburg authorities in 1969 for his role in Nazi executions in Italy but the case was dropped the same year; the files explaining why have disappeared.

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