Tweet
My how things change.
In WWII, partisans attacked off duty German soldiers who responded with reprisal killings of prisoners of war. Today, a German court held that the reprisals were justified in a case involving an SS Major in Italy. Story below.
We have repeatedly heard arguments here (mainly the ME threads) that partisan attacks "remain" OK if they are directed to an occupying power. Of course, reprisal attacks are not OK. Otherwise the flow of Palesinian blood would be a river.
Well, beginning July 1, even partisan attacks will be illegal under the new ICC. I quote Article 8(2)(a)(xi):
CyberGnu, what do you think? Should Arafat call a halt?
The AP story:
In WWII, partisans attacked off duty German soldiers who responded with reprisal killings of prisoners of war. Today, a German court held that the reprisals were justified in a case involving an SS Major in Italy. Story below.
We have repeatedly heard arguments here (mainly the ME threads) that partisan attacks "remain" OK if they are directed to an occupying power. Of course, reprisal attacks are not OK. Otherwise the flow of Palesinian blood would be a river.
Well, beginning July 1, even partisan attacks will be illegal under the new ICC. I quote Article 8(2)(a)(xi):
For the purpose of this Statute, "war crimes" means:
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(XI) Killing or wounding treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;
(a) Grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949, namely, any of the following acts against persons or property protected under the provisions of the relevant Geneva Convention:
(XI) Killing or wounding treacherously individuals belonging to the hostile nation or army;
The AP story:
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) - Citing orders from Adolf Hitler, a 93-year-old former SS major on Wednesday defended the killing of Italian prisoners during World War II as a legitimate wartime act.
Speaking outside the courtroom, Friedrich Engel, who is charged with 59 counts of murder, told The Associated Press that Nazi forces were provoked by Italian partisans and said he believed at the time that the massacre was justified.
The Hamburg state court upheld that argument Wednesday, saying rules of war in 1944 did not explicitly outlaw reprisal killings. But the murder case against the Hamburg retiree hinges on the prosecution's allegation that Engel ordered a massacre on May 19, 1944, that was especially cruel.
The Italian captives allegedly were bound in pairs and forced to walk onto a plank over an open grave, where they were shot. The victims then fell into the pit, on top of freshly killed bodies.
Engel is charged with ordering the shootings at the Turchino Pass outside Genoa, where he headed an SS intelligence unit charged with obtaining information about internal enemies to Hitler.
The massacre was in retaliation for an attack on a movie theater that killed five German soldiers. Nearly 60 years later, a court led by a judge born in the year of the massacre is trying to establish the facts in one of Germany's last Nazi war crimes trials.
Engel has told the court he was present and approved the list of prisoners from Genoa's Marassi jail to be shot. But he has denied the charges of murder, saying he shot no one and that the German navy ordered the reprisals.
Engel, a neatly dressed white-haired man who walks with a cane, spoke firmly and without apparent emotion as he sat outside the wood-paneled courtroom where he has been on trial since May 7.
Anger flickered, though, when he denounced the partisans who fought Nazi occupying forces in Italy. "We Germans were provoked with treacherous, underhanded attacks," he said. "The partisans were not honest fighters."
Engel said he was among officials who attended a meeting in Florence led by a Nazi general that laid out Germany's reprisal policy in Italy after a March 23, 1944, bombing killed 32 German policemen in Rome.
The meeting discussed an order by Hitler that 10 Italians should die for every German killed, Engel said.
"The Americans were advancing. An order was handed down to redouble efforts to fight attacks against Germans," he said. "It was up to me to carry out this order from Hitler and my superiors."
When the Genoa shootings were planned a few weeks later, "I was in a position where I had to view it as legitimate," Engel said.
But he said he soon came to doubt that the killings "were right," and he ignored orders a month later for another reprisal shooting.
Prosecutors say the Genoa massacre was particularly gruesome, justifying murder charges.
One witness has testified that Engel "clearly had the job of supervising the shootings" and at one point ordered a lieutenant to shoot a captive lying in the grave but not yet dead. The witness, Walter Emig, who was in the German navy stationed in Genoa, has described Engel as an "ice-cold dog."
Hamburg authorities investigated Engel in 1969 for his role in Nazi executions in Italy. The case was dropped the same year for reasons that aren't known because the files were lost.
But an Italian military court convicted him in absentia in 1999 and sentenced him to life for war crimes connected to a total of 246 deaths.
Italy pressed for Engel's trial after a German television documentary last year drew attention to his case and the fact that he had been living for decades in Hamburg.
A verdict is expected next month, though defense efforts to obtain autopsy results from Italy about the massacre victims could lead to a delay.
Speaking outside the courtroom, Friedrich Engel, who is charged with 59 counts of murder, told The Associated Press that Nazi forces were provoked by Italian partisans and said he believed at the time that the massacre was justified.
The Hamburg state court upheld that argument Wednesday, saying rules of war in 1944 did not explicitly outlaw reprisal killings. But the murder case against the Hamburg retiree hinges on the prosecution's allegation that Engel ordered a massacre on May 19, 1944, that was especially cruel.
The Italian captives allegedly were bound in pairs and forced to walk onto a plank over an open grave, where they were shot. The victims then fell into the pit, on top of freshly killed bodies.
Engel is charged with ordering the shootings at the Turchino Pass outside Genoa, where he headed an SS intelligence unit charged with obtaining information about internal enemies to Hitler.
The massacre was in retaliation for an attack on a movie theater that killed five German soldiers. Nearly 60 years later, a court led by a judge born in the year of the massacre is trying to establish the facts in one of Germany's last Nazi war crimes trials.
Engel has told the court he was present and approved the list of prisoners from Genoa's Marassi jail to be shot. But he has denied the charges of murder, saying he shot no one and that the German navy ordered the reprisals.
Engel, a neatly dressed white-haired man who walks with a cane, spoke firmly and without apparent emotion as he sat outside the wood-paneled courtroom where he has been on trial since May 7.
Anger flickered, though, when he denounced the partisans who fought Nazi occupying forces in Italy. "We Germans were provoked with treacherous, underhanded attacks," he said. "The partisans were not honest fighters."
Engel said he was among officials who attended a meeting in Florence led by a Nazi general that laid out Germany's reprisal policy in Italy after a March 23, 1944, bombing killed 32 German policemen in Rome.
The meeting discussed an order by Hitler that 10 Italians should die for every German killed, Engel said.
"The Americans were advancing. An order was handed down to redouble efforts to fight attacks against Germans," he said. "It was up to me to carry out this order from Hitler and my superiors."
When the Genoa shootings were planned a few weeks later, "I was in a position where I had to view it as legitimate," Engel said.
But he said he soon came to doubt that the killings "were right," and he ignored orders a month later for another reprisal shooting.
Prosecutors say the Genoa massacre was particularly gruesome, justifying murder charges.
One witness has testified that Engel "clearly had the job of supervising the shootings" and at one point ordered a lieutenant to shoot a captive lying in the grave but not yet dead. The witness, Walter Emig, who was in the German navy stationed in Genoa, has described Engel as an "ice-cold dog."
Hamburg authorities investigated Engel in 1969 for his role in Nazi executions in Italy. The case was dropped the same year for reasons that aren't known because the files were lost.
But an Italian military court convicted him in absentia in 1999 and sentenced him to life for war crimes connected to a total of 246 deaths.
Italy pressed for Engel's trial after a German television documentary last year drew attention to his case and the fact that he had been living for decades in Hamburg.
A verdict is expected next month, though defense efforts to obtain autopsy results from Italy about the massacre victims could lead to a delay.
Maybe that court is under the control of former Nazis?
Comment