Argentina has announced it will not accept the body of convicted Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke, who died in Italy on Friday at the age of 100. The decision was communicated via Twitter by the office of Foreign Minister Hector Timerman, who stated, 'Foreign Minister Hector Timerman has given the order not to accept the slightest move to allow the return of the body of Nazi criminal Erich Priebke to our country.'
Priebke, a former SS captain, was found guilty of ordering the massacre at Rome's Ardeatine caves in March 1944, a crime for which he never expressed remorse. He fled to Argentina after World War II and lived for nearly 40 years in the Andean resort of Bariloche before his identity was unveiled in 1994. He was later extradited to Italy and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998, but due to his age and poor health, he served his sentence under house arrest in Rome.
The foreign ministry added, 'Argentines will not accept this kind of affront to human dignity.' The decision was welcomed by two Jewish organisations, the Israelite Argentine Mutual Aid Association (Amia) and the Delegation of Argentine Jewish Associations (Daia). The Daia stated that Priebke's 'resided with impunity for decades in our country, enjoying a life that so many civilians had been deprived of' was 'an affront to the principles of the Republic.'
Argentina has the largest Jewish community in Latin America, consisting of some 300,000 members. The Daia urged people 'not to forget and not forgive the Nazi genocide, or any type of genocide.'
