by Helen Fry
One particular Italian partisan observed that the German police units kept to exactly the same schedule: at the same time every day, around 100 security police from the SS Police Regiment Bozen marched back to their barracks along the Via Rasella.8 On 23 March 1944, he filled a street cleaner’s barrow with explosives with a timer fuse set to go off when half the police regiment had marched by. The carnage that followed the explosion was horrific, and the scene on Via Rasella was utter chaos. Dead bodies of German security police and ordinary Italians were strewn across the street. Some buildings in the immediate vicinity were on fire. It was estimated that thirty-three members of SS Police Regiment Bozen were killed and sixty injured. And then there were all the dead and wounded Italians. Four men were arrested for this act of sabotage.
Luftwaffe General Kurt Mälzer called a meeting with SS Police Chief Herbert Kappler and informed him that ten Italians had to be killed for every dead SS man: 330 Italians had to die within twenty-four hours. It was Mälzer who gave the order, although the SS would carry out the killings.9 General von Mackensen, commander of the 14th Army, conveyed to Kappler that the German army would not get involved in reprisals; but if there had to be retaliation, then it should be restricted to prisoners who had already been sentenced to death in Italy’s prisons.
Kappler discovered that there were only 273 Italian prisoners being held in the prisons awaiting death. He telephoned General Wilhelm Harster in Verona, commander of the intelligence section of the SS, for advice, and they agreed that the fifty-seven Italians needed to make up the number should be Jews taken from concentration camps. The message was relayed to Kesselring that those to be executed would be Italians already sentenced to death.
The following morning, an extremely agitated Kappler contemplated the situation. He had to kill 330 Italians by the end of the day. The German army had refused to take part in the executions, and so too had General von Mackensen’s men. Kappler made his final decision: he and sixty of his own officers would carry out the killings at the Ardeatine caves in the hills surrounding Rome. What happened there became known as the Ardeatine caves massacre and took place under conditions of the utmost secrecy.
On 24 March, lorries began to move the prisoners from Rome’s prisons, along with fifty-seven Jews from a concentration camp, to a disused quarry by the caves. Five extra prisoners were taken in error, resulting in a total massacre of 335 people. At the entrance to the quarry, groups of six at a time were made to walk the short distance to the caves. Forced to kneel, they were then shot in the head by officers of the SS Police Regiment Bozen who had been plied with cognac to ensure that they carried out the orders. After the killings, the cave entrances were plugged with dynamite, blown up and sealed with new bricks. There the 335 bodies lay in heaps until their discovery after the liberation of Rome three months later. Rumours of the massacre did leak out, but because the caves had been sealed, the civilian population did not know the full truth until after liberation. Later, Colonel Zolling, chief intelligence officer to Kesselring, explained to the field marshal the possible reprisals after the partisan attack on Via Rasella, but said nothing about the caves massacre. That was one reason why Colonel Scotland maintained that Kesselring knew nothing of the massacre until he was confronted with the facts at the London Cage. Scotland’s investigations narrowed the perpetrators down to Herbert Kappler, Erich Priebke, Karl Hass, Kurt Mälzer and the SS Police Regiment Bozen.10
The caves massacre was not an isolated atrocity: a number of other reprisals by German forces took place against Italian partisans between June and August 1944. As a result, by 1946 Kesselring was facing charges by the Allies on seventeen counts of giving the order for unlawful killings. Some of the killings had been carried out by the Hermann Göring Division which, although controlled by Göring himself, came within Kesselring’s geographical area of command in Italy. Another reprisal took place at Bordini, a village near La Spezia, after a group of partisans ambushed a lorryload of soldiers of the 16th SS Panzer Division. Seventeen SS men were left dead. The lorry was doused with petrol, set on fire and the bodies of the dead Germans were strewn across the burning wreckage. A heavily armed SS unit later scoured the local villages for the partisans in hiding. All they found were terrified elderly men, women and children who knew nothing of the attack. The SS showed no mercy. It rounded them up and shot them.
The war crimes investigations could prove unpredictable in their con-clusions: Colonel Scotland and his team came to understand that there was a difference between commanders Nikolaus von Falkenhorst and Field Marshal Kesselring. Falkenhorst had been supreme commander of all three services in Norway and was bound by the direct authority of Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel. His crime lay in not ensuring that British prisoners of war were treated as such and placed in prisoner-of-war camps. He had allowed the German security police to determine their fate. By contrast, Kesselring had limited jurisdiction in Italy and bore no responsibility for the order to kill 330 Italians.
Commanders in Italy
The order for the mass murder in the Ardeatine caves had to be pinned on a high-ranking German officer, and it was the brief of the London Cage to find out who had been responsible. In the spring of 1946, a number of Kesselring’s staff found themselves in the London Cage as witnesses or suspects, all high-ranking officers and generals from Italy. They included General von Mackensen, Wehrmacht Generals Heinrich von Vietinghoff and Joachim Lemelsen, General von Senger und Etterlin, Commander Heer, Lieutenant-General of the Artillery Eduard Crasemann, SS General Karl Wolff, SS General Wilhelm Harster, SS Lieutenant-General Max Simon and SS Major-General Tensfeld. They were put together in a large room, given a typewriter and instructed to explain the reprisals and massacre in their own words, and to write down their own individual statements. Examining the reports from the interrogations, it became clear that, whilst a case for war crimes could be brought against these German commanders, the crimes had been committed on Italian soil and should be the subject of an Italian war crimes investigation of their own. Nevertheless, it did not prevent the British from holding war crimes trials in Italy.
As well as this imposing list of high-ranking German commanders, the London Cage was also holding SS generals and war criminals from other theatres of war, including SS Commander Fritz Knöchlein of the Le Paradis massacre, Jakob Sporrenberg, German commando Helmut Tanzmann and many others under investigation.
In February 1946, General Fridolin von Senger und Etterlin (known as General von Senger) was transferred to the London Cage. He spoke flawless English, having studied as a Rhodes scholar at Oxford University, and was well versed in world affairs. The general of a Panzer division, he had been captured at Trento and was initially held in a number of different POW camps in Italy. While in the London Cage he provided an articulate, rational argument that SS General Karl Wolff, as the highest commander in Italy, was responsible for the war crimes there, not the German army. It was an argument that resonated with Colonel Scotland, who believed that the German army was largely innocent of crimes in Italy.
When General von Mackensen arrived at the cage, interrogators found him to be from a proud military family. His father had had a distinguished career in the First World War. Mackensen was asked to write a full account of the reprisals that led to the Ardeatine caves massacre, which he completed in two days. In his own defence, he claimed that he knew there were to be reprisals by the security police, but was unaware of the massacre. Mackensen was warned by Colonel Scotland that he would probably face charges as a war criminal, at which point Mackensen became extremely agitated and muttered: ‘Thank God my father is not alive.’11
Scotland believed that Mackensen was also innocent of the massacre, and assured him that he would offer a plea on his behalf to have the charges lifted. But the Judge Advocate General’s Office was pushing for Mackensen to stand trial, and Scotland was ultimately unsuccessful.
High Commander Heer was found to be a stiff gentleman, aloof and austere, who insisted on ha
ving his own private room in the cage. In contrast to General von Senger, he argued that the German army in Italy was in fact culpable of war crimes, but that the regiment responsible had come under the command of Hermann Göring, not Kesselring.
At this time, SS Lieutenant-General Max Simon was interviewed as a witness at the London Cage, and admitted that the killing of partisans had taken place. He said that the action was reported direct to Göring’s headquarters, and the original order to kill had not come from either Kesselring or Wolff. A frank and straightforward character, Simon won the respect of his interrogators.12 Two villages had been the scene of murders of partisans by his men, but he maintained that he knew nothing of it until after the deaths. He admitted to Scotland: ‘I know that the men who did it were under my command. There is nothing I can do but take the responsibility.’13
Max Simon did not stand trial for the Ardeatine caves massacre, but did receive the death penalty from a British military court for the Marzabotto massacre in Italy in autumn 1944; his sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment and he eventually received a pardon.
Tall, ruddy-faced SS Major-General Willy Tensfeld was a different character altogether, being described by Scotland as ‘a man of no morale whatsoever’.14 When challenged over the shooting of twelve Italians in Burgo Techino,15 he became a nervous, stammering wreck and a doctor had to be called to give him a sedative;16 there is no record of what was administered, but he would not have been the first prisoner in the cage to be given a barbiturate. He was promptly sent to his cell to write down his statement. Just two hours later, he handed Scotland a small piece of paper with illegible scribblings. Still very agitated, Tensfeld was helped in his statement by Max Simon. In the end, Tensfeld was not convicted.
Karl Wolff was head of the security police and all SS units in Italy. He denied any knowledge of the Ardeatine caves massacre and claimed he was away on 24 March 1944. Whenever he faced difficult questions from interrogators, he irritated them by feigning ignorance, offering a stupid grin and talking gibberish.17 Scotland decided not to tolerate his nonsense and challenged him. Scotland reckoned that Wolff must have attended the funeral of his thirty-three policemen killed by the partisans. Wolff replied that he attended only to read the eulogy. Staff at the cage felt only revulsion for Wolff because as an SS commander he knew the intricate details of Himmler’s experiments on Jews in concentration camps.18
Scotland discovered that General Harster had not attended the funeral of his men. Looking smug under interrogation, Harster said he had been confined to his office in Verona with a leg injury.19 Scotland did not believe him and suggested that the real reason he could not leave Verona was because he was finishing his final report on the reprisals to send to Berlin. Harster began biting his lower lip – a nervousness that betrayed his guilt. After the interrogation of Wolff and Harster, Scotland was resolutely convinced that Kesselring was innocent.
Investigating the culprits of war crimes in Italy was challenging for Scotland and his team, because German-occupied Italy had several commanders, and untangling the chain of command for atrocities committed in the field was a complicated task. Field Marshal Kesselring reported ultimately to Wehrmacht High Commander Heer; and German lines of communication were overseen by General Plenipotentiary Toussaint, who had been appointed by Himmler. Then there were the commanders of the German navy and air force in Italy, and General Karl Wolff, head of the security police and SS. Kesselring was only in charge of German army units fighting on the front line in Italy. His authority was therefore limited.
The area where anti-partisan reprisals took place in Rome came under the command of General Mälzer. As an open city, Rome was controlled by the security police. The command structure in Italy was further complicated by the fact that Mälzer was accountable to Toussaint, and the security police were accountable to Commander Kappler, who was under General Harster. Harster was responsible to Wolff. Kappler also happened to be the German representative to the Holy See (the Vatican) and Abwehr officer in charge of counter-espionage.
In the end, not a single German commander in Italy was hanged for the Ardeatine caves massacre. Kappler and Mackensen faced trial and were sentenced to life imprisonment. Mackensen was released in 1952. Kappler had many influential friends in Rome, who did all they could to prevent him coming to trial before a British court – and they succeeded; Kappler was never brought to the London Cage for interrogation, and in October 1948, he was tried by an Italian court. In his defence, he claimed that the order for the massacre had come from Hitler; and as Hitler was dead, it was hard to prove otherwise. The Italian court found Kappler guilty of the murder of just 5 of the 335 Italians massacred in the cave. His prison sentence was short.
Kurt Mälzer was sentenced to death, but this, too, was later commuted to life imprisonment. Harster went to trial in 1949 and was imprisoned, but was released in 1953. Kesselring attended the trial of Mackensen and Mälzer as a witness and vouched for them by declaring that he had been in complete command in Italy. It made no difference to their sentences. Justice was served late on SS police officers Erich Priebke and Karl Hass, who did not face trial until 1996 and 1998, respectively. Erich Priebke was found not guilty because he was ‘acting on orders’, although he had allegedly fled to Argentina after the war on a Vatican passport. Karl Hass was placed under house arrest and died in 2004.
Kesselring on trial
There was nothing Colonel Scotland could do to prevent Kesselring from standing trial. The field marshal, whom Scotland had befriended, was transferred from the London Cage to the American zone in Germany and held in a camp until his trial in Venice, in spring 1947. The charge against him: that while senior commander in south-west Europe, he gave orders that led to the shooting of 335 Italians in Rome on 24 March 1944, and to the massacre of Italian civilians and partisans in caves between June and August 1944.20 Scotland never wavered in his belief in Kesselring’s innocence. Determined to defend him, Scotland travelled to Venice in February 1947 to testify on Kesselring’s behalf. His personal defence of the field marshal was deeply unpopular within the intelligence services.
The controversial side of Scotland erupted in the courtroom, as Kesselring told the judge that he was not guilty of all the charges.
‘Who told you that?’ the judge advocate asked.
‘Colonel Scotland,’ he replied.21
Scotland found himself once again at the centre of the courtroom, as he was asked to step into the witness box to account for his comments. He articulated a simple but powerful argument that Kesselring could not possibly be guilty of war crimes, because his authority had been limited. The prosecuting member turned to the judge and asked permission to question Scotland about the organisation of the German army in Italy. This was granted. The defending counsel immediately rose to his feet and raised an objection: ‘Colonel Scotland has not been a soldier in the German army and is not competent to provide this information.’22
The prosecuting member turned to Scotland and asked whether he had ever been a soldier in the German army. Scotland replied ‘yes’.
This was not the first time that Scotland had been asked publicly about his time in the German army, but it caused a stir in a courtroom. He enjoyed the high drama and challenge of defending Kesselring; it was, after all, not dissimilar to outwitting a prisoner in an interrogation. His expertise at logical and legalistic argumentation was shown off to the court audience; but nothing he said made any difference to the outcome of Kesselring’s trial: he was found guilty and sentenced to death. The sentence was later commuted to imprisonment, which was served in Werl prison, east of Dortmund in Germany.
There is a postscript to the friendship between Scotland and Kesselring. On 17 September 1949, Scotland was visiting Werl prison and asked the governor for permission to see Kesselring. The fact that Scotland made the request was quite remarkable. It was done not out of curiosity, but instead reflected the mutual trust between the two men. The governor granted the request. In
the cell, Kesselring greeted him warmly. Scotland found him defiant and still with a razor-sharp mind.23 He had retained his sense of humour and still maintained his innocence. Kesselring was released from prison in October 1952 for health reasons, and died of a heart attack on 16 July 1960 at the age of seventy-four.
Scotland embarked on writing a book defending Kesselring’s innocence in 1949. But it was never published: it was banned by the intelligence services. No copy of the manuscript was ever released and it may no longer survive. All attempts to locate it have failed.
15
DEATH IN THE CAGE
The bitterly cold winter of 1945–46 meant uncomfortable conditions for staff and inmates in the cage. A shortage of fuel and firewood saw their residence become uncompromisingly sparse, as the beautiful oak panelling was torn down and burnt in the fireplaces. The harsh conditions were matched by the equally tough prisoners who crossed the threshold as part of the war crimes investigations: SS officers and some of the most loathsome Nazi officers and commanders ever to be held by the Allies. ‘The reputation of the Waffen-SS stemmed from both their prowess in the field and the atrocities they had committed,’ wrote MI19 interrogator Matthew Sullivan.1 The atmosphere became extremely tense as the guards tried to keep them in order.
Among these prisoners were Infantry General Otto Roettig, interrogated by Captain Cornish on 25 January 1946; SS Lieutenant-General Jakob Sporrenberg, implicated in the killing of 42,000 Jews in Lublin in a single day; Helmut Tanzmann of the harsh Tanzmann Commando brigade; and SS man Erich Zacharias; as well as various commandants of concentration camps. Scotland enforced strict discipline, as he and the interrogators worked long days and evenings hearing the horrors of the SS’s crimes, or battling with war criminals who continued to deny any part in the atrocities, despite the evidence against them. The German-Jewish émigré interrogators listened to the former commandants of the camps boasting about the number of Jews they had killed.