Anneliese Kappler, wife of the former Rome Gestapo chief, Herbert Kappler and organizer of his controversial escape from a Rome military prison to West Germany, denied last night that any official German authority or any group had aided in the escape attempt. He would never join his diocese. Germany was furious at the betrayal and retaliated by invading Italy. He was intelligent earning a scholarship to a teacher training college. This set the stage for further advancement and Kappler was commissioned a Gestapo officer, with the rank of SS-Untersturmfhrer (second lieutenant), on November 9, 1938 (the traditional anniversary of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch). Fortunately, they did not storm the Vatican because of its unique status. He was head of German police and security services (Sicherheitspolizei and SD) in Rome during the Second World War and was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre.[1][2]. Herbert Kappler was born on September 23, 1907, to a middle-class family in Stuttgart in the German Empire. This website makes use of cookies to ensure that the website works properly. At the same time, he became a stormtrooper in the Sturmabteilung . Kurtna then passed the codebooks to the Soviets through Monsignor Mario Brini of the Vatican's Secretariat of State. Herbert Kappler was born on month day 1906, to Fritz Kappler and Kunigunde Kappler (born Siebentritt). He had served 30 years of a life term imposed by an Italian military tribunal in 1948 for the reprisal killing during World War II of 335 hostages, including 57 Jews. [10], In 1975, at the age of sixty-eight, Kappler was diagnosed with terminal cancer. [1][4][5][6][7], Kappler was immediately put in charge of implementing the Holocaust in Italy in both Rome and Lazio;[4] in his first action, 1,023 Roman Jews were rounded up and deported to Auschwitz; where only 16 survived. As they already had so many enemies, the last thing they wanted was to alienate the worlds entire Catholic population by violating the Popes domain. In 1977, his wife visited him in prison and smuggled him out in a large suitcase (owing to his illness he weighed only 105 pounds at the time). Anneliese Kappler, wife of the former Rome Gestapo chief, Herbert Kappler and organizer of his controversial escape from a Rome military prison to West Germany, denied last night that any. Waiting to solve 5. Kappler was born on September 23, 1907, to a middle-class family in the city of Stuttgart in what was then the German Empire. In 1935, as part of Germany's rearming programs, Kappler was called up to serve in the Wehrmacht. Herbert Kappler joined the Nazi Party on August 1, 1931 at the age of twenty three. (1997), Military history of Italy during World War II, "An Italian doctor explains "Syndrome K", the fake disease he invented to save Jews from the Nazis", "Weitere Grber nicht mehr namenlos (neues deutschland)", "La vedova di Kappler a Trento per il culto del Simonino", "Erich Priebke, Nazi Who Carried Out Massacre of 335 Italians, Dies at 100", "Nazi funeral that's forcing Italy to face its past", "Kappler's escape MEETING WITH Hon. Erich Priebke did manage to escape and it was not until 1996 that Priebke would face justice. Kappler was convicted to life imprisonment by an Italian military tribunal after WWII and served life imprisonment in an Italian prison. what happened to herbert kappler's first wife. The radio play was first broadcast on November 30, 2006 on UK BBC Radio 4. OFlaherty never lost his talent for socializing or forgot his golfing skills. Other One month ago 0 answers 1 views. Germany was furious at the betrayal and retaliated by invading Italy. Herbert Kappler passed away in 1978 after Anneliese broke him out of prison when he was . "First a great fear, then a great calm, an enormous lucidity. Question ( 102766) Answer ( 32) Member ( 11) Streamline your workflow with our best-in-class digital asset management system. She also denied receiving financial aid for the escape from any group, but admitted, during a TV interview, that she had received money from various groups representing former SS members. Walter Ciszek as a fellow political prisoner in the Gulag complex located 300km above the Arctic Circle and known as Norillag. SS Obersturmfhrer, The head of German police and security services in Rome. SOLTAU, West Germany, Feb. 10 (UPI) The family of Herbert Kappler, a former Nazi SS colonel, withheld plans for his funeral today to prevent pro- and antiNazi demonstrators from appearing at the rites. Hunted by them, he ended up converting the SS chief in Rome. Shortly after his birth O'Flaherty's parents moved to Killarney, Ireland, and made a home on a golf course where James O'Flaherty worked as a steward. Toget about, he donned various disguises, hence his nickname the Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican. It came from a book about an Englishman who disguised himself to help French nobility escape the purges of the French Revolution. She lowered him out a fourthfloor window with a mountainclimbing harness, hid him in a box and drove to West Germay. Although most were Allied soldiers, some were Jews. Herbert Kappler. You got lucky! As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. Minister Vito Lattanzio", National Archives and Records Administration, Centro di Documentazione Ebraica Contemporanea, Pope Pius XII and the raid on the Roman ghetto, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Herbert_Kappler&oldid=1128139070, Germans convicted of war crimes committed in Italy during World War II, German police officers convicted of murder, Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Italy, Prisoners and detainees of the British military, Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from September 2018, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, This page was last edited on 18 December 2022, at 16:08. In his first action, 1,023 Italian Jews were deported, of whom only 16 survived. What happened to Herbert Kappler? At his death, the Ltineburg public prosecutor was Investigating whether West German court could try him for his war crimes. At his trial in 1948, after six hours, the head of the five-judge military tribunal gravely pronounced the stiffest sentence he could give under Italian law: "life imprisonment, including four years solitary confinement, for repeated and premeditated murder.. Italy demanded his extradition, but .West Germany said this was impossible under its Constitution. [17], Six months after his escape, Kappler died at home in Soltau, on 9 February 1978, aged 70. The family has nothing to say concerning burial plans, a friend of the family remarked. David Alvarez and Robert A. Graham, S.J. As the authorities refused to release him, in 1977, Anneliese carried Kappler out of prison in a large suitcase (he weighed less than one hundred five pounds at the time). Mr. Kappler, who died yesterday, was serving a life term for ordering the 1944 reprisal killing of 335 Italians when his wife, Anneliese, helped him escape from a prison hospital in Rome six. In retaliation for the armistice between Italy and the Allies on 8 September 1943, the German military occupied Rome and Kappler was appointed as Chief of the Security Police and Security Service (Oberbefehlshaber des Sicherheitspolizei und SD) for all SS and Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) units deployed in Rome. As part of the latter operation, Kappler successfully extorted 50 kilograms of gold (110 lbs.) 9 (Reuters)Herbert Kappler; a_convicted Nazi war criminal, died of stomach cancer here today, six months after- a daring escape from a Rome military hospital. Kappler and his first wife divorced while Kappler was serving his sentence; later, he was married again to Anneliese Kappler, a nurse who had carried on a lengthy correspondence with Kappler . At the same time, he became a stormtrooper in the Sturmabteilung (SA) and served as an SA-Mann from August 1, 1931 to December 1, 1932. Kappler was responsible for many cruel deeds in Rome as well as the massacre at The Ardeatine Caves, which were personally supervised by Kappler. The priest believed it might be misinterpreted as an attempt to influence his trial judges. Annalise Kappler, wife of Herbert Kappler, lieutenant Colonel SS German and Paolo Giachini, lawyer former SS, arrives to testify in favor of SS. Download our mobile app for on-the-go access to the Jewish Virtual Library, 1998 - 2023 American-Israeli Cooperative Enterprise. . Kappler was also portrayed by Christopher Plummer in the 1983 TV movie The Scarlet and The Black, which detailed Kappler's first meeting with Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty. Source: Dutch National Archives, The Hague. The Italians unsuccessfully demanded that Kappler be returned, but the West Germany authorities refused to extradite him and did not prosecute Kappler for any further war crimes, reportedly due to his ill health. As Rome fell to Allied forces, Kappler unsuccessfully tried to seek refuge in the Vatican, but he was arrested by British authorities in 1945 and later turned over to the Italian government in 1947. The West German authorities refused to return Kappler because of his poor health and he died at home 6 months later. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. [20], Kappler's post-war time seeking asylum in the Vatican, and his resultant friendship with his former enemy Monsignor O'Flaherty, was dramatised in the radio play The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican by Robin Glendinning. It was also because the Republic of Ireland was neutral during the war. Wellwishers showered the Kappler apartment with flowers and telegrams, and young neoNazis marched along the street below with, Fascist and antiJewish banners. This is a digitized version of an article from The Timess print archive, before the start of online publication in 1996. Kurtna, who was always loyal to the USSR, only started to also spy for Nazi Germany in 1943 because his new handler, Kappler, repeatedly threatened to otherwise send Kurtna and his wife to a concentration camp. [19], Kappler was portrayed by Christopher Plummer in the 1983 TV film The Scarlet and The Black, which detailed Kappler's first meeting with Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty. Kappler and his first wife divorced while Kappler was serving his sentence, but he was married again to Anneliese Kappler, a nurse who had carried on a lengthy correspondence with Kappler before marrying him in a prison wedding ceremony in 1972. He later arranged the deportation of a further 993 Roman Jews, nearly all of whom also died in the gas chambers. One of the most notorious actions Kappler undertook while in Rome was the organization of the Ardeatine massacre where over three hundred Italian civilians were killed on 24-03-1944 in collective punishment for an attack by resistance fighters against an SS formation in Rome. OFlaherty enlisted several VIPs. Because of Kappler's deteriorating condition and his wife's nursing skills, Anneliese Kappler had been allowed almost unlimited access to him during his time in the Italian hospital. Kappler was in charge of Jewish roundups for deportations to Auschwitz. By early 1944, Kappler was the highest representative of the Reich Security Main Office in Rome and answered directly to both the military governorship, under Luftwaffe General Kurt Mlzer, as well as the SS chain of command under the Higher SS and Police Leader of Italy, SS-Obergruppenfhrer Karl Wolff. He mingled with Victor Emmanuel III, the King of Italy and he also became friendly with Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini; the founder of Italian Fascism. Appeals by both his wife and the West German government to release him were denied by Italian authorities. He was head of German police and security services (Sicherheitspolizei and SD) in Rome during the Second World War and was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre. Now he was practically in charge of Rome as. As a subscriber, you have 10 gift articles to give each month. The two lived at an address on Tbingern, Kurzestrasse 15, before later moving to an apartment listed at Stuttgart-Degerloch, Reutlingerstrasse 98. [citation needed] In 1938, during the Anschluss, he supervised the mass deportations of Austrian Jews as part of the Holocaust in Austria.[3]. Since he was at this time considered only a general SS member, not assigned to permanent full-time duties, Kappler was not exempt from the draft and he became a Schtze in the Wehrmacht on June 11, 1935. Kappler was posted to Rome as head of the Sicherheitsdienst (SD) and, from the beginning of the Second World War, he cooperated closely with the Italian police. He later arranged the deportation of a further 993 Roman Jews, nearly all of whom eventually died in Nazi gas chambers. He rose to the rank of SS- Obersturmbannfhrer and was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre as well as dealing with Vatican City over its neutrality. Priebke's commanding officer, Col. Herbert Kappler, was put on trial in postwar Rome; in 1948 he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the Ardeatine Caves atrocity, but his wife eventually. She defended her husbands shooting of 335 Italian Jews and non-Jews in 1941 in reprisal for a partisan attack on Romes SS headquarters, saying he was acting under orders. On a visit in August 1977, Kappler's wife carried him out in a large suitcase (Kappler weighed about 47kg (104lb) at the time) and escaped to West Germany, assisted by apparently unwitting carabinieri. By submitting the above I agree to the privacy policy and terms of use of JTA.org, Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923. See the article in its original context from. Yet it was in The Scarlet and the Black that Plummer played his most Catholic role, the Gestapo chief in Rome, Herbert Kappler. Hugh OFlaherty was born on February 28, 1898, in County Cork, Ireland. During his childhood, Kappler witnessed World War I, and came of age in the Weimar Republic during the 1920s. During this action, he demanded 110 pounds of gold from the Jewish community in Rome, which he later claimed was an attempt to prevent the round-up and the deportations. With a portion of Italy under German occupation, those POWs were at risk of being recaptured. ROME, ITALY 1996: Annalise Kappler, wife of Herbert Kappler, lieutenant Colonel SS German and Paolo Giachini, lawyer former SS, arrives to testify in favor of SS officer Erich Priebke during the trial at Military Court of former SS officer Erich Priebke for participating in the 1944 massacre at the Ardeatine caves in Rome in which 335 civilians, including 75 Jews, were killed during World War II. Kurtna was last seen in 1948 by Fr. Both Capponi and Bentivegna had grown up under Benito Mussolini's dictatorship. During those same years, Kurtna covertly spied for the Soviet Union, with devastating results for the many underground priests and faithful whose names he passed to the NKVD. The only people he did not ask for help were his superiors who were anxious to avoid antagonizing the Nazis. Herbert Kappler (23 September 1907 9 February 1978) was a key German SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era. OFlaherty did not just hide POWs. In 1934, OFlaherty was appointedMonsignor; a title for high-ranking clergy members who have provided valuable service to the church. Herbert Kappler joined the Nazi Party on 1 August 1931 at the age of twenty three. Mr. Kappler's escape last Aug. 15 from the military hospital, to which he had been transferred because of deteriorating health, caused a political furor. Despite this O'Flaherty assisted in helping members of Kapplers family in escaping from Rome at Liberation. By early 1944, Kappler was the highest representative of the Reich Security Main Office in Rome and answered directly to both the military governorship, under Luftwaffe General Kurt Maelzer, as well as the SS chain of command under the Higher SS and Police Leader of Italy, SS-Obergruppenfhrer Karl Wolff. TimesMachine is an exclusive benefit for home delivery and digital subscribers. Kappler converted to Roman Catholicism. He rose to the rank of SS- Obersturmbannfhrer and was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre as well as dealing with Vatican City over its neutrality. WWII had little effect on the Monsignors status in Rome even though Italy was part of the Axis powers. Appeals by both his wife and the West German government to release him were denied by Italian authorities, but earned him a transfer to a hospital. [2], Due to Kappler's deteriorating condition and his wife's nursing skills, Anneliese Kappler had been allowed almost unlimited access to him. OFlaherty was told he would be shot if he crossed the line not that it stopped him. 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During his teenage years Hugh was a talented student and golfer . She smuggled him into West Germany by car. Living in a major city such as Stuttgart, Kappler was a witness to the chaos of the Great Depression, the expansion of the Freikorps, and the rise of the Nazi Party. Tap into Getty Images' global scale, data-driven insights, and network of more than 340,000 creators to create content exclusively for your brand. Appeals by both his wife and the West German government for compassionate release were denied by Italian authorities, but did earn him a transfer to a hospital in 1976. Kappler was born to a middle-class family in Stuttgart in what was still the German Empire. Kappler joined the Nazi Party on August 1, 1931and the SSin 1933. They deposed Mussolini and freed all Allied POWs. The radio play was first broadcast on 30 November 2006 on UK BBC Radio 4. He escaped from prison shortly before his death in West Germany in 1978. Herbert Kappler joined the Nazi Party on 1 August 1931 and joined the SS in 1933. [11][12], Kappler organised the Ardeatine massacre, in which 335 Italian civilians were killed on 24 March 1944 in response to a direct order from Adolf Hitler to "kill 100 Italians for each German", in retaliation for an attack by the Italian Resistance that had resulted in the deaths of 33 men of the SS Police Regiment Bozen's garrison in Rome. He served as head of German police and security services (Sicherheitspolizei and SD) in Rome during the Second World War and was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre.[1][2]. In these measures, Kappler came into direct conflict with the Vatican, which was highly suspected of harboring Allied fugitives and escaped prisoners, even though the Vatican under Pope Pius XII was technically neutral. The date of the Ardeatine massacre, March 24, 1944, became a national day of mourning in Italy, and the killings are still recalled with outrage. In 1931, Herbert Kappler formally became a Nazi Party member. In January 1936, he was assigned to duty at the Gestapo central office of Stuttgart. A particularly detested adversary of Kappler's was Irish Monsignor Hugh O'Flaherty of the Sacred Congregation De Propaganda Fide. Kappler's second in command in Rome, SS-Captain Erich Priebke, did manage to escape and it was not until 1996 that Priebke would face justice. [9][13] Kappler's first wife divorced him while he was serving his sentence. Upon the outbreak of World War II, in September 1939, Kappler was serving as an SS-Hauptsturmfhrer (captain) out of the Stuttgart Gestapo main office. Occasionally the digitization process introduces transcription errors or other problems; we are continuing to work to improve these archived versions. Because of Kapplers deteriorating condition and his wifes nursing skills, Anneliese Kappler had been allowed almost unlimited access to him after he was transferred to an Italian hospital. In 1937, Kappler graduated from the Fhrerschule der Sicherheitspolizei (Leadership School of the Security Police) in Berlin as a Kriminalkommissar (criminal commissioner). Kappler joined the Nazi Party on August 1, 1931 and the SS in 1933. In the 1973 feature film Massacre in Rome, which deals with the Ardeatine massacre, Kappler was portrayed by actor Richard Burton. 1,007 were shipped to Auschwitz. Despite this O'Flaherty assisted in helping members of Kapplers family in escaping from Rome at Liberation. After serving as an SS-Anwrter from December 1932 to May 1933, Kappler was appointed an SS-Mann and assigned the SS membership number 55,211. In January 1936, he was assigned to duty at the Gestapo central office of Stuttgart. Herbert Kappler (23 September 1907 - 9 February 1978) was a key German SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era. Shahan Russell is one of the authors writing for WAR HISTORY ONLINE. Military Wiki is a FANDOM Lifestyle Community. He was promoted to SS-Obersturmbannfhrer (lieutenant colonel) on September 12 and quickly assumed his new duties operating out of the Italian capital. It did not take the Nazis long to realize that OFlaherty was behind the disappearing people. Therefore, he was allowed to visit POW camps throughout Italy. Lieutenant Colonel Herbert Kapplerwas head of The Gestapo in Rome during the occupation. The Italians demanded that Kappler be returned, but the West Germany authorities refused to extradite him and did not prosecute Kappler for any further war crimes, reportedly owing to ill-health. Kunigunde was born on August 21 1882. He later remarried Anneliese Kappler, a nurse with whom he had carried on a lengthy correspondence, in a prison wedding ceremony in 1972.