Karl Gropler

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Karl Gropler (born July 29, 1923 in Wollin , Brandenburg ; † August 2013 ibid.) Was an SS-Unterscharfuhrer and a war criminal convicted in Italy , who on June 22, 2005 - in absentia - because of the massacre of Sant'Anna di Stazzema with other SS officers had been sentenced to life imprisonment.

Life

SS career

Gropler had been with the Hitler Youth since 1937 and volunteered for the SS in March 1942 . After completing his basic training, he first worked in Holland and then in France .

In the same year he was transferred to the SS Totenkopf Division on the Eastern Front near Kharkov . After a head injury, he first came to Poland , then to Hungary , East Prussia and finally to Italy in 1944 to the notorious 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" .

In the 16th SS Panzer Grenadier Division "Reichsführer SS" , Gropler, promoted to SS Rottenführer in April 1944 and SS Unterscharführer in June, was assigned to the 8th Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 35th SS Panzer Grenadier Regiment, which was assigned by the SS - Hauptsturmführer Anton Galler was led. The involvement of the 8th Company in the massacre of Sant'Anna di Stazzema has been proven. As a member of the Waffen-SS with the rank of SS-Scharführer, Gropler led five subordinates to whom he passed the killing orders to civilians. According to the historian Carlo Gentile , there was an independence of the leaders, who could decide independently and independently according to their mandate. Gropler always stated during interrogations that he could not do anything about the massacre. In a video, however, he stated that he was in a church at the time and had not heard of a massacre.

After 1945

It is known that after the end of the war Gropler worked in an agricultural production cooperative (LPG) in Wollin and was involved in the voluntary fire brigade.

In 2005, Gropler and other co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia. The judgment was upheld in 2006 by the Court of Appeal in Rome in the second instance and in 2007 by the Supreme Court of Cassation in the third and last instance.

When it became known that there was a convicted criminal living in Wollin, the press came to the town and found that either nobody in the village wanted to talk about him or that he was being protected.

Since 2002 the public prosecutor's office in Stuttgart has been investigating nine of the suspected perpetrators in Italy, plus another five who were not identified in La Spezia. The proceedings were dropped in 2012 because the accused could not be proven to have committed murder or aiding and abetting murder.

On May 6, 2006, as part of the nationwide day of action for the massacres in Sant'Anna , around 50 people rallied in Wollin.

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Sandro Mattioli: The Silence of the Offender , November 6, 2013. Accessed October 1, 2019
  2. ↑ Sommer Gerhard, Schöneberg Alfred, Bruss Werner, Schendel Heinrich, Sonntag Ludwig Heinrich, Rauch Georg, Goring Ludwig, Concina Alfred, Gropler Karl, Richter Horst (Italian), from June 22, 2005, to Ministerio di Difesa. Retrieved October 1, 2019
  3. ^ A b Carlo Gentile: Wehrmacht and Waffen-SS in Partisan War: Italy 1943–1945 . Schöningh, Paderborn 2012, ISBN 978-3-506-76520-8 . P. 200
  4. ↑ Herman G. Abmayr: The biological solution , November 6, 2013. Retrieved October 1, 2019
  5. ↑ Karl Gropler, former SS man , on contrasts . Retrieved October 1, 2019
  6. ↑ a b c Astrid Frohloff: Terrifying: Wolin citizens defend alleged war criminals , from May 17, 2006
  7. ↑ Silvia Buzzelli, Marco De Paolis, Andrea Speranzoni: La ricostruzione giudiziale dei crimini nazifascisti in Italia. Questioni preliminari. Giappichelli, Turin 2012 ISBN 978-88-348-2619-5 pp. 145-146
  8. ↑ Johannes Boie: Our neighbor, the SS butcher , dated May 27, 2006. Retrieved October 1, 2019
  9. ↑ Nazi war crimes: proceedings on SS massacre in Italy discontinued , October 1, 2010, on Spiegel Online . Retrieved October 1, 2019
  10. ↑ Rally in Wollin , on Indymedia. Retrieved October 1, 2019
personal data
SURNAME Gropler, Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION SS-Unterscharfuhrer and war criminal
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1923
PLACE OF BIRTH Wollin , Brandenburg
DATE OF DEATH August 2013
Place of death Wollin , Brandenburg