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Italy Indicts Three Ex-SS Members
An Italian court indicted three former members of the Nazi SS Monday on charges of having carried out a massacre of 560 people in a Tuscan village, a local news agency reported. In August 1944, some 300 of Hitlerâs elite SS surrounded SantâAnna di Stazzema, which had been flooded with refugees, in what was supposed to be a hunt for partisans. Instead, they rounded up all villagers they could find - 80 percent of whom were women, children and elderly - and began shooting them, according to witnesses. Others were herded into basements and enclosed spaces and killed with hand grenades.Not the worst atrocity these particular bastards ever committed either, Iâll wager. The ANSA news agency said indictments were issued against Gerhard Sommer, 83; Alfred Schonenberg, 83; and Ludwig Sonntag, 80, all former members of an SS Panzergrenadier Division were indicted, the ANSA news agency said. The court in La Spezia, northwestern Italy, decided not to proceed with cases against two other former SS members and asked for further information on a third, it said. Judicial officials in La Spezia could not be reached for information after the ruling was issued late Monday. The accused were not in court Monday, ANSA said. Further information on the men was not immediately known. German prosecutors have also been carrying out investigations in the case and last year recommended the prosecution of eight men. Among those cited was someone referred to only as Gerhard S. Stuttgart prosecutors handling the German case could not be reached for comment Monday night. The Italian trial is scheduled to begin in April, ANSA said. Try âem fair and hang âem fair. Posted by: Steve White 2004-01-13 |
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