Herbert Kappler Herbert Kappler ( 23 September 1907 – 9 February 1978 ) was the head of German police and security services ( " Oberbefehlshaber des Sicherheitspolizei und SD " ) in Rome during World War II . He rose to the rank of SS - " Obersturmbannführer " and was responsible for the Ardeatine massacre as well as dealing with Vatican City over its neutrality . Early life . Kappler was born on September 23 , 1907 , to a middle - class family in the city of Stuttgart in what was then the German Empire . During his childhood , Kappler witnessed World War I , and came of age in the Weimar Republic during the 1920s . Kappler attended four years of elementary school ( " Volksschule " ) followed by four more of high school and graduated in 1925 . He next attended a technical college and spent seven semesters studying electrical engineering . By 1929 , he was a certified electrician , still living in Stuttgart . Kappler ' s activities between 1929 and 1931 are little known , except that he was living in Stuttgart , occasionally performing work as an electrician . Living in a major city such as Stuttgart , Kappler was a witness to the chaos of the Great Depression , the expansion of the Freikorps , and the rise of the Nazi Party . In 1931 , Herbert Kappler formally became a Nazi Party member . Nazi Party and SS membership . Herbert Kappler joined the Nazi Party on August 1 , 1931 at the age of twenty three . At the same time , he became a stormtrooper in the " Sturmabteilung " ( SA ) and served as an SA - " Mann " from August 1 , 1931 to December 1 , 1932 . His Nazi Party membership number was 594 , 899 . Upon leaving the SA , Kappler was accepted as a prospective candidate into the " Schutzstaffel " ( SS ) and appointed to the entry level probation rank of SS - " Anwärter " . He underwent six months of indoctrination training , and was sworn into the SS on May 8 , 1933 . During Kappler ' s probationary period , Adolf Hitler became Chancellor of Germany , meaning that Kappler did not have the " honor " of full SS membership prior to the Nazis ' assumption of power . Even so , due to his membership in the SA and Nazi Party dating from 1931 , Kappler was considered an " Alter Kämpfer " and awarded the Honour Chevron for the Old Guard in 1934 . After serving as an SS - " Anwärter " from December 1932 to May 1933 , Kappler was appointed an SS - " Mann " and assigned the SS membership number 55 , 211 . His first assignment was as a member of an " Allgemeine SS " formation ( the 13th SS - Standarte ) , operating out of Stuttgart , performing part - time duties as a member of the general SS . Kappler was also in Stuttgart during the Night of the Long Knives , but was at this time too junior in the SS to significantly participate . Towards the end of 1934 , on September 29 , he married Leonore Janns who was the same age as Kappler ( 27 at the time ) and came from the city of Heilbronn . The two lived at an address on Tübingern , Kurzestrasse 15 , before later moving to an apartment listed at Stuttgart - Degerloch , Reutlingerstrasse 98 . In 1935 , as part of Germany ' s rearming programs , Kappler was called up to serve in the " Wehrmacht " . Since he was at this time considered only a general SS member , not assigned to permanent full - time duties , Kappler was not exempt from the draft and he became a " Schütze " in the " Wehrmacht " on June 11 , 1935 . Kappler performed active training duty over three separate periods from June 1935 to September 1936 , with final release on September 27 , 1936 with the rank of " Feldwebel der Reserve " . Kappler was never discharged and technically held this rank during World War II , although by that time Kappler was an active full - time SS member and exempt from further military service . Kappler was also never affiliated with the Waffen - SS and spent the war performing " behind the lines " police and security duty . In mid 1935 , Kappler applied for transfer to the full - time SS and submitted an application to join the " Sicherheitspolizei " ( Security Police ) or SiPo . In January 1936 , he was promoted to the rank of SS - " Scharführer " ( sergeant ) and assigned to duty at the Gestapo main office of Stuttgart ( " Stapoleitstelle Stuttgart " ) . Over the next year , Kappler began to be noticed by his superiors and was introduced to Reinhard Heydrich ( although some sources state Kappler knew Heydrich for some time before ) . In 1937 , Kappler ( now an SS - " Oberscharführer " ( staff sergeant ) ) was sent by his Gestapo superiors to attend the " Führerschule der Sicherheitspolzei " ( Leadership School of the Security Police ) in Berlin from which he graduated in the summer of 1937 as a certified " Kriminalkommissar " ( Criminal Commissioner ) . This set the stage for further advancement and Kappler was commissioned a Gestapo officer , with the rank of SS - " Untersturmführer " ( second lieutenant ) , on November 9 , 1938 ( the traditional anniversary of the Munich Beer Hall Putsch ) . World War II . Upon the outbreak of World War II , in September 1939 , Kappler was serving as an SS - " Hauptsturmführer " ( captain ) out of the Stuttgart Gestapo main office . From 1939 to 1940 , he was briefly deployed to Poland and participated in various " Einsatzgruppen " actions before serving a further tour as a uniformed Gestapo officer in occupied Belgium where he acted to suppress resistance . In mid 1941 , now an SS - Major , Kappler was selected as a liaison officer to the government of Benito Mussolini as well as a security advisor to the Fascist police . His appointment to Italy was the result of his security police experience , connections with the SS leadership ( Reinhard Heydrich , in particular ) , as well as a fluency in the Italian language . Following the armistice between Italy and the Allied Forces on September 8 , 1943 , the German military occupied Rome and Kappler was ordered to serve as Chief of the Security Police and Security Service ( " Oberbefehlshaber des Sicherheitspolizei und SD " ) for all SS and police units deployed in Rome . He was promoted to SS - " Obersturmbannführer " ( lieutenant colonel ) on September 12 and quickly assumed his new duties operating out of the Italian capital . Chief of Police in Rome . Kappler ' s first action as head of German security forces in Rome was to help plan the rescue of Benito Mussolini by the SS special forces , a feat which was accomplished by Otto Skorzeny . Kappler was next entrusted with Jewish roundups for transportation to Auschwitz ; in his first action , 1 , 023 Italian Jews were deported with only 16 surviving , and Kappler would later arrange the deportation of a further 993 Roman Jews , nearly all of whom would eventually perish in Nazi gas chamber s . By early 1944 , Kappler was the highest representative of the " Reichssicherheitshauptamt " ( Reich Main Security Office ) in Rome and answered directly to both the military governorship , under " Luftwaffe " Major General Kurt Mälzer , as well as the SS chain of command under the Supreme SS and Police Leader of Italy , SS - " Obergruppenführer " Karl Wolff . Kappler ' s main activities during this period involved suppressing resistance groups , rounding up " enemies of the state " , and enforcing anti - Jewish measures , conducting Jewish ghetto raids , and deportations to extermination camps . As the Allied armies invaded Italy and began moving north towards Rome , Kappler became significantly involved in hunting suspected Allied agents and Allied prisoners - of - war which had escaped Italian POW camps after the Italian Army capitulated . In these measures , Kappler came into direct conflict with the Vatican , which was highly suspected of harboring Allied fugitives and escaped prisoners , even though the Vatican under Pope Pius XII was technically neutral . A particular adversary of Kappler ' s in this respect was Monsignor Hugh O ' Flaherty , whose activities helping Jewish fugitives and Allied prisoners escape Rome led to Kappler having him targeted for assassination . Paradoxically , after the war Kappler and O ' Flaherty would become friends of sorts . One of the most notorious actions Kappler undertook while in Rome was the organization of the Ardeatine massacre where 335 Italian civilians were killed on March 24 , 1944 in collective punishment for an attack by resistance fighters against the SS Police Regiment Bozen in Rome . Arrest and later life . As Rome fell to Allied forces , Kappler unsuccessfully tried to seek refuge in the Vatican , but he was arrested by British authorities in 1945 and later turned over to the Italian government in 1947 . Kappler ' s second in command in Rome , SS - Captain Erich Priebke , did manage to escape and it was not until 1996 that Priebke would face justice . In 1947 , Kappler was tried by an Italian military tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment in the military prison of Gaeta . Kappler and his first wife divorced while Kappler was serving his sentence , but he was married again to Anneliese Kappler , a nurse who had carried on a lengthy correspondence with Kappler before marrying him in a prison wedding ceremony in 1972 . By this time Kappler had also converted to Catholicism , partly due to the influence of his war - time opponent , the Vatican diplomat Mgr Hugh O ' Flaherty , who often visited Kappler in prison , discussing literature and religion with him . By 1975 , at the age of sixty - eight , Kappler was diagnosed with terminal cancer and he was moved to a military hospital in Rome in 1976 . Appeals by both his wife and the West German government to release him were denied by Italian authorities . Because of Kappler ' s deteriorating condition and his wife ' s nursing skills , Anneliese Kappler had been allowed almost unlimited access to him during his time in the Italian hospital . On a prison visit in August 1977 , Kappler ' s wife carried him out in a large suitcase ( Kappler weighed less than 105 pounds at the time ) and escaped to West Germany , assisted by apparently unwitting carabinieri . The Italians unsuccessfully demanded that Kappler be returned , but the West Germany authorities refused to extradite him and did not prosecute Kappler for any further war crimes , reportedly due to his ill health . Six months after his escape , Kappler died at home in Soltau , on February 9 , 1978 , aged 70 . In film and drama . In the 1973 feature film " Massacre in Rome " , which deals with the Ardeatine massacre , Kappler was portrayed by actor Richard Burton . Kappler was also portrayed by Christopher Plummer in the 1983 TV movie " The Scarlet and The Black " , which detailed Kappler ' s first meeting with Monsignor Hugh O ' Flaherty . Kappler ' s post - war time seeking asylum in the Vatican , and his resultant friendship with his former enemy Monsignor O ' Flaherty , was dramatised in the radio play " The Scarlet Pimpernel of the Vatican " by Robin Glendinning . The radio play was first broadcast on November 30 , 2006 on UK BBC Radio 4 .