
Anton Galler
* 30 January 1915 –
Marktl near Lilienfeld (Austria)
† 21 March 1995 –
Dénia (Spain)
Anton Galler is attributed with shared responsibility for the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema.
He was born in Lower Austria and came into contact with the Nazi movement early on. In 1932, he joined Hitler Youth; in 1933, he joined the SS. He then had to leave Austria for Germany, where he completed a training course for SS-leaders. Assigned to the Schutzpolizei, he participated in the deportation of Upper Silesia’s Polish and Jewish residents. In 1941, he took part in fighting with the 4th SS Police Division in Northern Russia. Beginning in Dec. 1943 Galler commanded a company of the ‘Reichsführer-SS’ Division. After heavy losses in Tuscany, at the end of July he took command of the 2nd Battalion of SS Panzergrenadier Regiment 35. In this role, soon after he participated in the massacre at Sant’Anna di Stazzema. Following the massacre at Monte Sole, Galler took control there near the front, where more murders of civilians were perpetrated. In the postwar period, he evaded arrest and largely led a normal life.
- Nationality
- Austrian
- Formation
-
Hitler Youth (20 Dec. 1932)
SS (1 March 1933) - Army branch
- Ordnungspolizei, Waffen-SS
- Joined the NSDAP
- No. 5756757 (24 June 1937)
- Armed force
-
Waffen-SS
- Unit
-
Schutzpolizei (then 4th SS Police Division)
16th SS Panzergrenadier Division ‘Reichsführer-SS’ - Years of service
- 1934-1945
- Rank
- SS-Sturmbannführer
- Offensive
-
Austrian ‘Anschluss’
Occupation of Czechoslovakia
Invasion of Poland
Invasion of Soviet Union
War in the East
Occupation of Italy 1944-45 - Confirmed Massacres
- Post war period
-
Lived a largely normal life in Austria.
Proceedings on account of Nazi crimes in Poland were terminated.
Emigration first to Canada, then to Spain
Training and war experience
-
Early years
Like many of the Nazi political refugees from Austria, in Germany Galler was taken in by the aid organization of the SS in Dachau. Soon afterwards, he joined the SS Verfügungstruppe (‘dispositional troops’), where he was selected for a leadership career. A psychological exam concluded that he had a ‘simple character’ of moderate intellectual capacities’.
-
Drawing close to National Socialism - political activities and military career
-
With the Schutzpolizei in the Nazi ‘struggle for race and volk’

Participation in massacres of civilians
-
From Sant'Anna di Stazzema to Monte Sole
The postwar period
-
A restless but reserved life
Sources
Galler’s SS-personnel files, offering a close picture of his life up to 1945, are kept in the Bundesarchiv in Berlin (German Federal Archives in Berlin) (R 9361-III/50618, R 9361-III/525588 and VBS 1069 (R 19)/ZB 1026 A. 12). Galler’s life after the war is described in the book of Christiane Kohl, who also conducted an interview with his son in the autumn of 1999.
Literature
Carlo Gentile, Wehrmacht und
Christiane Kohl, Der Himmel war strahlend blau. Vom Wüten der
Christiane Kohl/Peter Burghardt, Viel Bräune im sonnigen Pensionistendorf, in: Süddeutsche Zeitung Nr. 262, 12.11.1999, p. 3.
Authorship and translation
Author: Carlo Gentile
Translated from German by: Joel Golb
© Project ‘The Massacres in Occupied Italy (1943-1945): Integrating the Perpetrators’ Memories’
2023