History of Sorts

The killing of innocent lives is despicable enough, but trying to make a profit out of it in the most deceitful way is beyond evil. Giving people hope that somehow they will survive, where there really was no intention of sparing their lives, sickens me to the core.

Shortly after the armistice between Italy and the Allied forces on September 8, 1943, the German military occupied Rome, and Herbert Kappler was appointed Chief of the Security Police and Security Service for all SS and Order Police units deployed in Rome.

On September 26, Major Herbert Kappler delivered a 36-hour ultimatum to the city’s Jewish community, requiring a ransom payment of fifty kilograms of gold, as well as 100 million Italian lire, to the SS headquarters in Rome, to avoid the mass arrest and deportation of Rome’s Jews to concentration camps.

The Jewish community, through Israel Zolli, the Chief Rabbi of Rome, informed the Vatican about the ransom and requested assistance, as the Jews did not possess the 50 kg of gold required to fulfill the ransom demand. The Vatican replied in September. 27,  that the Pope, Pius XII, was willing to lend, interest-free, the 110 pounds of gold to the Jewish community.

However, by September 28, the Jewish community had received donations from Jews and non-Jews that exceeded 110 pounds. The loan of the Vatican was therefore no longer required.

However, on October 16, 1943, the Nazis, in conjunction with the Italians, conducted a roundup of the Jews in Rome, and two days later, on October the Nazis deported 18,1,035 Jews to Auschwitz.

Rabbi Israel Zolli survived and converted together with his second wife and daughter to Catholicism in 1945.

In 1948, Kappler was tried by an Italian military tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment in the Gaeta military prison. In 1977 he escaped prison, because he had been terminally ill, he only weighed 47 KG, His wife was able to carry him ot in a suitcase.6 months after his escape, he died.

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