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Herbert Kappler (23 September 1907 – 9 February 1978) was a key German SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era. 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 .
Feb 10, 1978 · SOLTAU, West Germany, Feb. 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. iie was...
The German police attaché and commander of the Security Police in Rome, SS Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler was on the scene soon afterwards to supervise the investigation.
After receiving permission from Hitler himself, Herbert Kappler, the SD (Security Service of the SS) Chief in Rome, immediately ordered massive retaliation. The reprisal he called for entailed the execution of ten Italians for every policemen killed.
Herbert Kappler was born on September 23, 1907, to a middle-class family in Stuttgart in the German Empire. Kappler joined the Nazi Party on August 1, 1931 and the SS in 1933. In January 1936, he was assigned to duty at the Gestapo central office of Stuttgart.
In 1948, an Italian military tribunal also sentenced Herbert Kappler to life imprisonment for his role in the murders. In 1977, Kappler's wife succeeded in smuggling her husband, who had been diagnosed with terminal cancer, from a prison hospital in Rome back to Germany.
The film stars Richard Burton as the Rome Gestapo chief Herbert Kappler, who carries out the killings of 335 mostly randomly and hurriedly selected victims in revenge for partisans killing 33 Germans: using a ratio of ten Italian victims for every German.
