Former Nazi Erich Priebke’s funeral stopped by protestors

Nothing—not even death—can shield former Nazi Erich Priebke from the world’s hatred.

After the notorious war criminal died on Friday, officials have had trouble finding a church or even a country willing to have his funeral or accept his ashes.

Reuters

Former Nazi SS Captain Erich Priebke (L) poses along his wife Alicia at his home in the Alpine-style Andean ski resort of San Carlos de Bariloche, August 20. Priebke lived openly in Argentina for years.

A splinter Catholic group, the Society of St. Pius X, tried to step in to host a funeral on Tuesday.

Priebke’s lawyer, Paolo Giachini, said that funeral was called off after scuffles erupted between protesters and the right-wing extremists who were trying to get into the building.

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Priebke, seen here during World War II, was given life for the 1944 massacre in Italy. He claimed he was just following orders.

Hundreds of protesters shouted “murderer” and “executioner” and slammed their fists on Priebke’s hearse as it arrived in the town of Albano Laziale for Mass.

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Priebke lived freely in Argentina for years until an ABC News correspondent tracked him to the town of Bariloche in 1994.

“They are trying to enter because they want to take the casket,” Giachini said. “I don’t know … they want to damage it, as they did to Mussolini. They want to enter by force and tear everything apart.”

Fascist leader Benito Mussolini was killed by partisans in 1945, and his body was strung upside down in a Milan piazza.

Riccardo De Luca/AP

Police in riot gear go after protesters after scuffles broke out outside the Society of St. Pius X, a schismatic Catholic group, where funeral of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke was scheduled to take place.

Italians hold Priebke responsible for the 1944 massacre of 335 civilians at the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome. Priebke spent decades hiding out in Argentina until he was extradited to Italy in 1995 to stand trial for his crimes.

Officials have decided to cremate his body. But Rome, the Vatican, Argentina, and Priebke’s hometown in Germany have refused to offer him a funeral or a burial.

Franco Origlia via Getty/Getty Images

The Catholic Church announced in a statement soon after Priebke’s death that “no public funeral would be granted to him in the city or outskirts of Rome.”

In fact, Pope Francis’ vicar in Rome, Cardinal Agostino Vallini, has prohibited any Rome church from giving Priebke’s his funeral rites. Vallini cited canon law and claimed that a funeral could be denied to “manifest sinners who cannot be granted ecclesiastical funerals without public scandal of the faithful.”

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VINCENZO PINTO/AFP/Getty Images

Dozens of angry protesters banged on the hearse as it was taken in for the ceremony, holding up a banner read “Priebke Hangman” and singing the Italian partisan song “Bella Ciao.”

Priebke has admitted to shooting two people and rounding up other victims for the massacre, one of the deadliest in German-occupied Italy during World War II.

But he’s insisted that he was just following orders from his bosses.

Yara Nardi/REUTERS

A woman holds signs reading, “The Jewish People Live” (R) and “He can celebrate his birthday, his victims no” during a protest against convicted former Nazi SS captain Erich Priebke in Rome. Priebke celebrated his 100th birthday July 29, 2013.

In an interview, he also denied that Jewish people were gassed during the Holocaust, instead accusing the West of inventing the crimes to atrocities committed by Allied forces.

Priebke spent 50 years on the run before he was captured. He died in his lawyer’s home at the age of 100.

Yara Nardi/REUTERS

People hold an Israeli flag during a protest against convicted former Nazi SS captain Erich Priebke in front of his residence in Rome.

He spent the last 17 years under house arrest. Rome’s Jewish community was inflamed by the presence of a Nazi in their midst, especially since Priebke was allowed to go to church on Sundays.

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“Any demonstration of honor – civil or religious – would be an intolerable affront to the memory of those who fell in the fight for freedom of Nazism and fascism,” Renzo Gattegna, the head of Italy’s Jewish communities, told CBS.

Priebke’s lawyer called it a question of “religious liberty,” telling CBS that since his client was a practicing Catholic, he deserved a Catholic burial.

But the lawyer is unsure about what would happen next. Giachini said he was turning over responsibility for future decisions to the family.

The commotion over Priebke’s funeral came just one day before Italy’s National Holocaust Remembrance Day. Wednesday marks the 70th anniversary of the roundup of Jews from Rome’s ghetto for the Auschwitz concentration camp.

With the Associated Press