| ISRAEL OFFICE, 1 MENDELE STREET, JERUSALEM 92147, ISRAEL, Wiesenthal Center on Decision to Allow Convicted Nazi War Criminal Erich Priebke to Work: "Outrageous, Senselessand Insensitive" Jerusalem – The Simon Wiesenthal Center today harshly criticized the decision taken yesterday by anItalian military judge to allow convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke to work despite his being under house arrest for his role in the murder of three hundred and thirty-five Italiancivilians in the Ardeatine caves outside Rome in March 1944. In a statement issued in Jerusalem by its chief Nazi-hunter, Israel director Dr. Efraim Zuroff, the Centercategorizd the decision as ”outrageous, senseless, and insensitive.” According to Zuroff: ”Any decision which grants privileges to a convicted and unrepentant Nazi war criminal like Priebke is outragous becauseit is based on a totally false assumption that as an elderly person Priebke deserves a measure of sympathy and even privileges. But the passage of time in no way diminishes the guilt ofHolocaust perpetrators and people like him, who had no mercy for their victims, do not deserve any sympathy themselves. The decision is senseless since there is no basis to grant Priebkeprivileges and the fact that he has reached an elderly age does not turn a murderer into Righteous Gentile. It is insensitive since it insults the family and friends of those murdered byPriebke and his cohorts.” |