Sentenced to life imprisonment, the beauty returned from prison, the SS Lieutenant Colonel Kapler, who escaped magically before his death

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The World War II movie "Red Robe and Shady", tells the story of Italian priest Hugh O Flaherty fighting against those who were hunted by the Gestapo, fighting wits and courage with Capler, the commander of the SS in Rome, and risking being caught The danger of Kappler’s assassination helped many people escape Nazi persecution. After the war, Father Flaherty actually became good friends with the imprisoned Kapler. Kapler became a Catholic under the influence of the priest. What is more surprising is that Kapler actually welcomed him in prison. In the second spring, I married a female nurse. After more than 30 years of imprisonment, Kapler, who was seriously ill, escaped from prison and returned to Germany. Who is this Kapler? What happened?

Kappler in the movie "Rome Massacre".

Herbert Kapler, born in a middle-class family in Stuttgart in September 1907, joined the SS in 1933, then entered the Gestapo headquarters in Stuttgart, and was sent to the Security Police Leadership School in Berlin for his excellent performance After graduation, he worked as a criminal commissioner. In 1938, he was sent to Austria to handle Jewish affairs.

After the outbreak of World War II, Kapler served as the leader of the Gestapo and security police in Poland, Belgium and other countries, suppressing resistance organizations, arresting Jews and driving them to death camps.

Kapler has never served as a commander of the armed forces. He has been doing Gestapo’s work, and he can speak fluent Italian. Because of this, he was promoted to the second assault in 1941. The captain (major), sent to Sicily, Italy, as the head of the SS security department.

After Mussolini stepped down in July 1943, the German forces quickly occupied Rome, and Kapler was sent to Rome to serve as the chief of the SS, the Gestapo and the security police in Rome. Yue was promoted to a first-level assault group captain (lieutenant colonel). It is here that Kapler and Father Flaherty have forged a lifelong bond of friend and foe.

Stills from the movie "Red Robe and Shady".

Kapler’s main mission in Rome is the same as in the past. It is still to suppress the guerrillas and capture the "enemies of the empire". He hunted more than 2,000 Jews before and after and transferred them to Osvi. Xin, almost all of these people were killed. In the process of arresting the Jews, Kapler had not forgotten the extortion. He had extorted 50 kilograms of gold from the Jewish group, claiming that he could avoid being deported by paying the "protection fee". It's all a scam.

The Vatican during World War II was nominally neutral, but secretly had an ambiguous relationship with Nazi Germany. It stands to reason that it would not conflict with the SS, but everything is possible, Hugh O. Frye Father Ertie is an exception. He has been helping Italian Jews, Allied prisoners of war and Italian soldiers who escaped from prison camps. By early 1944, he had helped more than 4,000 people escape. Of course, these activities could not escape the eyes of the Gestapo. Kapler and the priest began a calm but undercurrent turbulent contest.

Fr Flaherty.

In view of the sacred status of the Vatican in the Catholic Church, Kapler could not blatantly arrest Flaherty. He could only monitor in secret, and even draw a prison. He ordered a white line to be drawn on the ground outside the Vatican Cathedral. Anyone who tries to cross this cordon will be arrested or killed. If the priest crosses this line and goes out, he will look for opportunities to assassinate him, but due to various factors, Kappler’s plan to assassinate the priest failed. The movie "The Red Robe and the Shady" tells the story in great detail.

Kapler created an astonishing incident in Rome. On March 23, 1944, the guerrillas attacked a SS unit with a bomb, killing 33The German army, more than 60 people were injured. After the attack, Kapler took cruel retaliatory measures, announcing that for every German soldier killed, 10 Italians would be shot. He ordered the execution of the Jews and Italian soldiers in custody, but these numbers were still not enough for 1:10. Therefore, Kapler ordered the SS to take the Italians as hostages on the street at will, and then killed them all in the Ardeatine cave outside Rome. A total of 335 hostages were shot and killed. This is the Rome University who later shocked Italy. massacre.

Stills from the movie "The Massacre in Rome".

After Germany surrendered, Kapler was arrested, but his assistant, one of the murderers of the Roman Massacre, SS Captain Priebuk managed to escape. Kapler was extradited to Italy for trial in 1947. The court sentenced Kapler to life imprisonment for war crimes because Italy had abolished the death penalty. Kapler’s imprisonment began his thirty-year prison career.

During the long years of imprisonment, someone often came to visit him, and had sincere discussions with him on issues of religion, philosophy, history, etc., so that Kapler slowly established himself in prison With spiritual sustenance, he later became a devout Catholic. This person who visits him frequently is Father Flaherty, whom Kapler wanted to get rid of, and now they have become irreversible friends who talk about everything. Once Kapler asked about helping the Jews escape during the war. Regarding the matter, the priest replied mysteriously: "I can't tell you too much. We are still helping people escape, but this time we are helping the Germans." (After the war, the Vatican helped many Nazi war criminals escape to South America. For details, please see my previous article.) Before his retirement in 1960, the priest wrote a letter to the Italian government, hoping to pardon Kapler, but was rejected. The priest passed away three years later.

Kapler was tried.

More magical things are still to come. After Kapler was in prison, his wife divorced him. For some reason, Kapler became pen pals with a nurse named Annes in prison. They Keeping communication for a long time, the more we talked, the more we fell in love with each other. It was almost too late to see each other, and I don’t know what magic Kapler had done. Annes actually fell in love with the prisoner Kapler. She was so in love with her heart and soul. Pooler's request for marriage was approved, and she came to the prison to have a wedding with Kappler. Kappler, who was imprisoned for life, could not have imagined that he would be hit by a pie falling from the sky in the prison.

Kapler’s wife Annes.

There are more miraculous things about to happen. In 1975, the 68-year-old Kapler was diagnosed with lung cancer. In 1976, he was transferred to a military hospital in Rome for supervision and treatment. At this time, his wife Annes and West The German government has made a request for release, but it was rejected again. Seeing that Kapler is running out of time, Anis decided to take the risk and help Kapler escape from prison. Because of her status as a nurse, Annes can visit Kapler without restrictions, which provides a convenient way for her plan. One day in August 1977, Annes brought a large suitcase into the hospital and quietly brought it Kapler, who was only 90 kilograms thin, carried Kapler in his suitcase. With the help of the people who didn’t know the truth, Kapler was successfully taken out of the hospital, and then smuggled to West Germany through ties. Kapler was in the city. Before he died, he escaped from birth. Of course, whether the West German government participated in this matter is highly doubtful.

The careless Italians were naturally unwilling to lose the prisoner, so they filed for extradition to West Germany. This time it was the West German government's turn to cock their tails. They rejected the Italian request for health reasons, and Germany did not prosecute Kapler for war crimes.

Kapler and his wife Annes on the hospital bed.

After returning to Germany, Kapler spent 6 months of "free" time in the hospital bed. On February 9, 1978, he died of illness at home at the age of 70.

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