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People hold up signs with names of Nazi concentration and death camps during a march marking the 70th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of Rome's Jews to concentration camps AP Photo/Riccardo De Luca

Family of Nazi criminal searches for missing body

Erich Priebke’s body went missing as his family tried to celebrate a funeral mas for him in Rome.

THE CASE OF Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke took on another bizarre twist today as his family said it doesn’t know where his body is.

Family lawyer Paolo Giachini said he and the former SS captain’s family lost track of Priebke’s casket on Tuesday night, when they tried to celebrate a funeral Mass for him in a church compound in Albano Laziale south of Rome.

At a certain point, he told Sky TG24, a group of about 30 people entered the compound and took the casket out following protests pitting Priebke’s right-wing supporters against his detractors.

Italian state radio said the casket was taken to a nearby military base. But Giachini said he hadn’t been able to establish who has the body or where it is, and Italian officials have refused to divulge information about it.

Giachini said:

It’s unheard of that a casket can be made to disappear in this country, taken from those who had custody of it in a private place — a place of worship — and taking it by force without any order, any notification. We want clarity.

Priebke died Friday at age 100 in Rome, where he was serving a life term for the 1944 massacre of 335 civilians at the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome. It was one of the worst atrocities in German-occupied Italy during World War II.

His death sparked waves of outrage in Italy’s Jewish community because, in a final statement issued by his lawyer upon his death, Priebke denied that Jews were gassed in Nazi death camps.

In a separate video statement released by Giachini today, Priebke also defended his actions at the Ardeatine Caves, saying the orders to shoot the civilians came from Adolf Hitler himself and that members of his SS unit were told they would be shot if they didn’t obey.

Giachini said he had been in touch with the German embassy for possible burial in Priebke’s native land, once the body is located.

Read: 30 Auschwitz guards to face criminal probes>

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34 Comments
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    Mute Jazz O'Gorman
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:08 PM

    Nazi anything is vermin, his body deserves to be dumped on the side of the road.

    114
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    Mute Ben Reilly
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:16 PM

    Couldn’t agree Jazz, put the body an industrial blender and pour it down the toilet … Good riddance

    52
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    Mute James P. Sullivan
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:52 PM

    I was going to suggest using it as cat litter for humans but you beat me to it.

    18
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    Mute Bluechip78
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:02 PM

    I wouldn’t say he was the nicest of fellows, especially with his final words denying the holocaust but it’s a disgrace the man can’t be buried by his family without being attacked.

    85
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    Mute Martin
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:12 PM

    Shame the Jews didn’t get to live to see that b@stard die

    112
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    Mute Jeff Kennedy
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:52 PM

    I think his point is ,was his body nicked to prevent a political statement ? Italy yet again has a National Socialist problem ,but nicking bodies is not the way to tackle it.

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    Mute Paul Mc
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:39 PM

    Maybe the Israelis kidnapped the body are are going to give it a fair trial and then hang it.

    44
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    Mute Brian Gallen
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    Oct 18th 2013, 6:05 AM

    Yess Posthumous execution like that of Oliver Cromwell dug up burnt hung and his body dumped in a ditch his head on public display in London for 25 years
    that’s what you get for ethnically cleansing Drogheda Wexford Waterford and Duncannon and that’s what you should get for taking part of “the final solution” …

    23
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    Mute Jason Naughton
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    Oct 18th 2013, 8:45 AM

    He got that for killing King Charles 1 not for cleansing Irish towns. They wouldn’t have done to him when he was alive. They only had that courage after his death.

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    Mute guardian
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    Oct 18th 2013, 12:33 PM

    Relax the kacks the man is dead we should be celebrating. Who cares who has a rotting body. The fact of the matter is he is dead.

    Im not at all religious so I dont believe he was punished but take comfort if you are religious that in your world he might go to hell or something

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    Mute Brian Gallen
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    Oct 19th 2013, 8:01 AM

    Cromwell was afraid he would come back from exile with an Irish army ex pat English from Ireland etc that’s why he was he’ll bent on reducing the Irish population by over half a million, in these days that’s a lot of people and a good reason to burn hang etc a dead man
    by the way if it could have been done while he was alive it would have, do you think everyone was sitting on there hands enjoying the slaughter like a good show

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    Mute Hippocrateeth
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:34 PM

    I can nazi how this is gonna end well.

    64
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    Mute Steve501
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:14 PM

    What was their excuse again….”we were just following orders.” And they were the ones who said they were sorry.

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    Mute Ping Pong
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:26 PM

    What?

    17
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    Mute Steve501
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:18 PM

    Exactly….

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    Mute The Avarus Animus
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    Oct 18th 2013, 1:06 AM

    Why don’t you tell your boss in the morning Steve to go and sh*te!You are not following his orders any more. You’ll lose your job most likely.Then imagine your boss has the ability to make your life outside work, a living hell. He can through his influence easily ostracise you and your family from society and perhaps in some circumstances, even have you killed for disobeying his orders. Saving your life, your livelihood, your children’s reputation and future was not an excuse to follow orders, it was reason to survive. Also, quite simply, trained soldiers obey orders otherwise the whole military experiment does not work!

    We cant imagine decision making in such a horrific scenario as WW2. Nothing was normal with Nazi Germany. What he done was wrong.You know that.I know that. He even knew that but his priorities at that time were different and now we’ll never know what they were.

    54
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    Mute SeanieRyan
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    Oct 18th 2013, 9:06 AM

    They didn’t bat an eyelid.

    3
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    Mute Fergal McDonagh
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    Oct 18th 2013, 1:01 AM

    Did they check behind the couch?

    39
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    Mute Ru Ni Digs
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:46 PM

    Who would’ve thought the “Zombie Apocalypse” would begin in Rome,with “Nazi Zombies” of all things ???

    27
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    Mute Niamh Byrne
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:31 PM

    It’s already happened. I had a dream about it then it was made into a movie ‘White Snow’.

    7
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    Mute Ru Ni Digs
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:47 PM

    “White Snow” is that a movie about thawing out Walt Disney ??? I suppose that would make him a “Nazi Zombie” of sorts.

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    Mute Who's Yer Man
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:40 PM

    Way to bring FG and abortion into this story. B+ for effort. I would also have accepted reference to the bankers ruining the country to get the A.

    18
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    Mute Thérèse
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:50 PM

    So where did my comment go?

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    Mute Jeff Kennedy
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:54 PM

    same place as that geeza’s body ,probably

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    Mute Thérèse
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    Oct 17th 2013, 10:57 PM

    Seriously, all I said was that the Fine Gael TDs who voted to make legal the intentional killing of unborn children said the same thing “We were only following orders”. Weird that that is deleted or “gone missing”, when it’s actually true. All the so called Catholic TDs said they had to do it or they’d be thrown out of the party and lose their jobs! The triple lock whip was used to make them obey orders. Of course that is no excuse.

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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:01 PM

    Thérese, your comment doesn’t really have anything to do with the story. This is not a story about abortion and bringing abortion into it just brings the comments completely off track.

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    Mute Damian O'Brien
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:03 PM

    It was terminated. And what the hell your comment concerning Fine Gael and the Protection of Life bill, when the article is about an unrepentant Nazi, your God only knows.

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    Mute Thérèse
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:12 PM

    Thanks Aoife for responding, but it is relevant. Your article says “Priebke also defended his actions at the Ardeatine Caves, saying the orders to shoot the civilians came from Adolf Hitler himself and that members of his SS unit were told they would be shot if they didn’t obey.”

    Anyone who coerces others to obey is in my opinion not fit for office – and in the case of abortion where we believe it is murder of innocent unborn babies, then it is atrocious. However, I’ll not mention it again in this article.
    :)

    10
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    Mute vv7k7Z3c
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:15 PM

    It’s a tenuous link. I appreciate you not mentioning it again.
    Thanks
    Aoife

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    Mute Bronagh B.
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    Oct 17th 2013, 11:34 PM

    *hits mute*

    27
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    Mute Leonora Hearty
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    Oct 18th 2013, 12:28 AM

    @bronagh was just thinking the same thing! Wish there was a mute button for the whole lot of them.

    15
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    Mute Sheelagh Reid
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    Oct 18th 2013, 12:19 PM

    So that would include parents and teachers coercing children to obey orders?

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    Mute Gerry Jones
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    Oct 18th 2013, 6:43 AM

    A monster and Nazi apologist. Good riddance.

    10
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