The trial against
SS-Sturmbannführer Walter Reder in 1951
Walter
Reder (4.2.1915 – 26.4.1991) was an officer of the „Waffen – SS“ during the
second world war.
Reder was
born in 1915 in Jesinek, Czech Republic (back in 1915 the name was Freiwaldau
and belonged to the Austrian – Hungarian empire). After being a member of the
“Hitlerjugend” he joined on February the 9th 1933 the Waffen SS. In
1936 he left the “SS – Junkerschule” (SS school) in Braunschweig and was from
then on a leader in a variety of “Totenkopf” divisions.
Because he
was later shifted to the division “Reichsführer – SS”, he became responsible
for the massacre of Marzabotto in September 1944.
After the
war ended, he was delivered to Italy in May 1948, where he was accused for war
crimes. In 1951 the war tribunal of Bologna held him guilty for killing 1800
inhabitants of Marzabotto and neighbouring areas and he was sentenced to life
imprisonment. He was therefore sent to Gaeta (fortress prison, in the region
Lazio)
On the 24th
of February, he was sent free precociously. Reder moved to Vienna where
he then died in the year 1991.
The trial against 17 SS - Officers and
Underofficers of the 16th reconnaissance battalion of the 16th “Panzergrenandierdivision
Reichsführer SS” began in 2006.
This trial held
by the military court of La Spezia trough the representative of the accusation:
Dott. Marco De Paolis was initiated in summer 1994, because of the discovering
of 695 investigation files in the Pallazo Cesi, seat of the military prosecution
in Rome. (Also known as “Cupboard of shame”)
The files
had a stamp on it, which said: “provisional archiving” (14.01.1960). This was the reason why hundreds of war criminals
were not accused. The files also contained numerous names of SS – members, with
an indication of their rank, which took part at the nazi massacre of Marzabotto
between the 29. September and the 5. October 1944.
The first
trial began in the springtime of 2005. The summit of the proceedings was
reached on the 8.2.2006. The municipal Marzabotto, Grizzana Morandi and Monzuno
as well as 99 survivors and relatives were joint plaintiffs. The lawyer Dott.
Giuseppe Giampaolo represented them. On the 13.01.2007 after 23 days of trial,
the military tribunal of La Spezia presided by Dott. Vincenzo Santoro accused
10 out of 17 SS – members of the massacre in absence.
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