I was with 81-year-old Nazi when he was arrested – he did 1 thing immediately | World | News
Abel Basti was interviewing the notorious Nazi when he was arrested (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
A former journalist has told of how a notorious elderly Nazi reacted when police turned up at his home in Argentina to arrest him. Erich Priebke – a mid-level SS commander in the Sicherheitspolizei – ingratiated himself into the community in Bariloche after fleeing Europe to the South American country.
Abel Basti, 69, who was born in Buenos Aires and has lived in Bariloche for 30 years, was a correspondent for the Diarios y Noticias news agency and the Ambito Financiero newspaper. Priebke’s wife let police into the apartment in 24 de Septiembre in 1994, he recalled.
He said: “The most impressive thing about Priebke was I was talking to an 80-year-old man in terms like you would talk to a grown man. But when the police came in, he stood at attention and said: ‘I’m ready.'”
Mr Basti added: “It was a transformation. I think he wants back to being a German SS man, and that the Allies were arresting him.”
Former SS Captain Erich Priebke leaves the office of his lawyer Paolo Giachini in Rome (Image: EPA)
SS Captain Erich Priebke in service at the German embassy in Rome. Years of service 1933 – 1945. (Image: WIKIPEDIA)
Erich Priebke was put on trial in Italy (Image: Getty)
The expert said that Priebke was very well known in the city as the President of the German-Argentine Cultural Association and representative of the German school.
“In other words, he was considered a good neighbour,” Mr Basti said.
He added that Priebke was a “kind person to everyone”, as well as “correct, very organised and very effective in his work”.
Prior to the interview, Mr Basti was aware of Priebke’s past, as it was assumed that an arrest warrant would be issued.
The specialist believes that he accepted his request to talk because he needed to “defend himself publicly”.
Bruce Thompson, 62, a British teacher living in Buenos Aires, visited Bariloche in 1988 during a summer holiday when he was 25.
Bruce Thompson came across Priebke while on holiday (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
“We stayed in this quite cheap hostel,” he said, “run by his wife, his Argentine wife, and he was there, this very correct, elderly, 80-something-year-old German, who didn’t speak very much.
“He said hello, and he was very correct, and very nice, a nice old guy, and it was only after we left, we came back, and then shortly afterwards, the stories started to break about him.
“We realised it was the same guy.”
Mr Thompson added: “He was just a nice old guy.
“But apparently, everybody knew for years who he was. He was living there, and he was semi-protected.”
Bariloche was a “safe haven”, the Englishman added. The other place they all went to was Cordoba.”
Express reporter Adam Toms and ‘nazi walk’ author abel basti (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
Priebke was arrested at his apartment (Image: Jonathan Buckmaster)
When Priebke was arrested, Mr Thompson suggested that he must have been “relieved in some funny way” and “he could be himself again”.
Priebke died aged 100 in Italy in 2013.
He was jailed for life in 1998 for his role in the massacre of 335 Italians at Rome’s Ardeatine Caves.
The shooting of men and boys at the caves in 1944 was a revenge attack ordered by Adolf Hitler for the killing of 33 German soldiers in the Italian capital by resistance fighters.
Priebke was among the officers who oversaw the rounding up and transportation.
However, he was allowed to serve his sentence under house arrest due to his age and poor health.
