Ex-Nazi Hurt Trying to Avoid Testifying

An 84-year-old former SS major fell from a hotel balcony Friday while trying to escape rather than testify against a fellow ex-Nazi on trial for Italy’s worst wartime atrocity.

Karl Hass, who was due to testify in the trial of former Nazi Capt. Erich Priebke on charges of organizing the 1944 Ardeatine Caves massacre of 335 men and boys, was taken to a hospital with a fractured pelvis and compressed vertebrae.

Antonio Intelisano, the trial’s military prosecutor, said after visiting Hass in a Rome military hospital that the German had blamed his attempted getaway on “stress” but was willing to testify Wednesday.

He quoted Hass as saying: “My attempted escape? A rush of blood to the head, a silly reaction brought on by heavy emotional pressure.”

The prosecutor added that, “had Hass not wanted to testify, he could have gone straight home through the front door. . . . There are no restrictions on his freedom.”

Intelisano said Hass left his Rome hotel room two floors above ground level just after dawn and had been trying to leave the building via a balcony on the floor below when he fell a few feet onto flower pots.

He said Hass might have been under pressure not to testify, but a police official said Hass received no calls at the hotel, although he probably telephoned his daughter in Switzerland.

Priebke’s lawyer has presented to the court documents that he said proved Hass was one of the main participants. “Perhaps he realized he was digging his own grave,” lawyer Velio Di Rezze said, attempting to explain the escape bid.

In the massacre, Nazi officers rounded up men and boys, carted them off to caves outside Rome and shot them in reprisal for the killing of 33 German soldiers.