New Italian Trial for Nazi SS Massacre

Italian prosecutors said on Monday a military judge had indicted three former members of the Nazi SS for their alleged role in a 1944 massacre of more than 500 villagers in northern Italy. According to the Associated Press, Germans Karl Gropler, Horst Richter and Alfred Concina will be tried in absentia at a court in La Spezia for killings in the village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema. The SS surrounded the village looking for partisan fighters but found only refugees including women, children and the elderly. The massacre is considered one of the worst Nazi atrocities in Italy during World War II. Three other Germans, Gerhard Sommer, Alfred Schöneberg and Ludwig Heinrich Sonntag, face charges in a case that began last month. None of the suspects are expected to be expedited to Italy.