The Simon Wiesenthal Center hailed efforts by church and civilian authorities in Rome to bar a religious or civil funeral for Erich Priebke, the Nazi official convicted in the massacre of innocent civilians outside of Rome in retaliation for the deaths of 33 German soldiers at the hands of partisans. Priebke died last week at the age of 100, serving a life sentence under house arrest.

"Erich Priebke oversaw the execution of 335 innocent people. They were each shot in the back of the head in the Ardeatine Caves. This unrepentant mass murder does not deserve a funeral in the City from where he took innocent Christians and Jews to their death,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
The leading Jewish human rights NGO played a key role in finding Priebke in Argentina and in his extradition to Italy.

For more information, please contact the Center's Public Relations Department, 310-553-9036, join the Center on Facebook, www.facebook.com/simonwiesenthalcenter, or follow @simonwiesenthal for news updates sent direct to your Twitter page or mobile device.

The Simon Wiesenthal Center is one of the largest international Jewish human rights organizations with over 400,000 member families in the United States. It is an NGO at international agencies including the United Nations, UNESCO, the OSCE, the OAS, the Council of Europe and the Latin American Parliament
(Parlatino).