Arny Branch

Security Police and SD

Armed Force

SS

Commanders

SS-Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler

Years of Service

1943-1944

Campaign

Occupation of Italy 1943-1944

Confirmed Massacres

Massacre in the Ardeatine Caves (24 March 1944)
Massacre at La Storta (4 June 1944)

Origins and war experience

• Personnel structure of the Rome Aussenkommando

  The structure of the Rome command outpost was consistent with other offices of the Security Police (Sipo). Sections I and II, responsible for personnel and administration, were led by SS-Sturmscharführer Peter Kessel. 

  Section III (SD-Inland) was directed by SS-Sturmbannführer Borante Domizlaff, a jurist who had been involved in paramilitary organisations since 1924, joining the underground Black Reichswehr—illegal military units formed in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles—and the paramilitary Verband Hindenburg in Lower Saxony. After studying law at Göttingen, Leipzig, and Hamburg, he joined the SS in 1933. Initially working as a legal advisor in the Nazi Party’s Brandenburg Gau offices, he later transferred to the SD, where he held various regional posts until 1943. 

  Domizlaff’s deputy was Reinhold Wetjen, an Austrian businessman and SS-Hauptsturmführer. Before the war, he was active in the Nazi Party’s foreign administration and the National Socialist People’s Welfare organisation. In 1939, he began working for the Amtliche Deutsche Ein- und Rückwanderungsstelle (Official German Office for Immigration and Remigration), which was responsible for resettling residents of South Tyrol within the German Reich. Wetjen is known as an SS leader who initially refused to participate in the Ardeatine Caves massacre, though he ultimately complied after pressure from Herbert Kappler. 

  The Gestapo (Section IV) and the Criminal Investigation Department (Section V) were directed by SS-Hauptsturmführer and Kriminalkommissar Carl Theodor Schütz. The Gestapo played a central role in the repression of occupied Rome, engaging in mass arrests, deportations, and torture. Schütz, notorious for his brutality, oversaw the widespread use of torture methods on detainees. Before his assignment in Rome, he had served as a Gestapo commissar in Trier and was part of an Einsatzkommando—a mobile killing unit—operating in Poland and the Soviet Union. In the post-war period, Schütz worked for the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the foreign intelligence agency of the Federal Republic of Germany.

  The Gestapo constituted the command outpost’s largest section and was divided into multiple departments, each responsible for different aspects of surveillance and repression. These included monitoring left-wing movements and organisations, particularly suppressing the resistance (Department IV A, referred to as the "bandit department" by Nazi officials, a term used to criminalise partisan fighters), as well as persecuting religious groups, ideological opponents, and minority communities (Department IV B). A key focus of IV B was the persecution and deportation of Italian Jews and Jewish organisations. Another department oversaw the suppression of workers’ strikes, while a separate unit was tasked with countering and monitoring foreign news services. 

  Section VI, the SD department responsible for sabotage and espionage, was directed by SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Hass. It employed a number of specialists and was particularly engaged in developing a clandestine “stay-behind” espionage network in Rome, intended for intelligence-gathering following an anticipated Allied occupation. The command outpost’s departments relied heavily on support from Italian informers and agents, including members of the Fascist militia and local collaborators. Although the exact number of individuals involved fluctuated, it remained considerable.

  A surviving document, presumably compiled shortly before the German evacuation of Rome in early June 1944, lists the Kommando’s personnel and details its departmental structure. Of the 75 named staff members, at least 41 belonged to the Gestapo (Department IV), between five and seven to SD-Inland (Department III, responsible for domestic intelligence), and between eight and ten to SD-Ausland (Department VI, the foreign Security Service). Additionally, 27 informants are recorded: two for Department III, 10 for Department IV, and fifteen for Department VI. In total, the Kommando comprised 105 personnel, including three female employees. 

• Participation in the freeing of Mussolini

  During the early months of the German occupation of Rome in 1943, Herbert Kappler’s two most important subordinates, Gerhard Köhler and Erich Priebke, were instrumental in the preparations for Benito Mussolini’s rescue. They conducted exploratory missions in the Gran Sasso region, gathering intelligence crucial for the planning and execution of Unternehmen Eiche (Operation Oak), one of the most famous commando operations of the war. The mission itself was carried out on 12 September 1943 by a Luftwaffe Fallschirmjäger (paratrooper) unit, supported by SS officer Otto Skorzeny and his team. Mussolini was swiftly liberated with minimal resistance and flown to Germany. For their role in the operation, Priebke and Köhler were awarded the Iron Cross, Second Class.

  On 9 September 1943, following the announcement of the armistice, Rome’s German embassy was vacated. Kappler’s office was temporarily relocated to Frascati, where General Student had his headquarters. After a few days, once relative stability had been restored in Rome, Kappler resumed work at the embassy.

• The first mass arrest of Italian Jews: Rome, 16 October 1943

  SS-Hauptsturmführer Theodor Dannecker, a close associate of Adolf Eichmann, was specifically sent to Rome to prepare and lead the large-scale arrest operation. He had previously been involved in organising deportations in France and Bulgaria. Following a meeting with SS-Brigadeführer Wilhelm Harster in Verona, the special task force under Dannecker arrived in Rome around 30 September 1943.

  To facilitate the planned measures, Italian civil registry records were seized. These were examined by Italian police officers at the offices of the German outpost on Via Tasso to identify the residences of the Jewish population.

  By late September, SS-Obersturmbannführer Herbert Kappler had already extorted Rome’s Jewish community, demanding the delivery of 50 kilograms of gold within 36 hours under threat of deporting 200 hostages. In a hastily organised collection effort, the Jewish community, supported by Roman sympathisers, managed to gather the required gold in time. Kappler had it sent to Berlin but did not keep his promise to refrain from deportations.

  The mass arrests took place on 16 October 1943. Dannecker’s special unit, supported by the German outpost and units of the Ordnungspolizei, systematically searched homes across various districts of Rome. A total of 1,259 people, including many women, children, and elderly individuals, were arrested. Most were torn from their sleep and allowed to take only a few personal belongings.

  Dannecker had previously ordered the identification of Jewish residents’ addresses, significantly increasing the efficiency of the operation. Two days later, on 18 October 1943, more than 1,000 of those arrested were deported from Tiburtina station in cattle cars to Auschwitz. Only sixteen survived.

• The Occupation in Rome: challenges, collaboration, German control-strategies

  Between September 1943 and June 1944, the Rome command outpost operated in a city struggling with the challenges of war and occupation. By the spring of 1944, Rome had an estimated population of two million, including many refugees, individuals in hiding, and unregistered soldiers. The city was marked by social tensions and logistical difficulties. Recurring shortages of staple foods frequently led to protests and unrest, further destabilising an already fragile social order. 

  As a central institution of Nazi German occupation, the Rome Kommando was instrumental in implementing surveillance and repression measures. Due to its limited personnel and logistical resources, its activities were concentrated in the capital and its immediate surroundings. Controlling the "open city" required close cooperation with various security forces, both German and Italian. 

  On the Italian side, the command outpost worked with the Pubblica Sicurezza and the Polizia dell’Africa Italiana, though these forces—comprising approximately 2,300 men—were not considered entirely reliable. They were supplemented by squadre speciali, most notably the Squadra Koch, led by Pietro Koch, a notorious unit responsible for the brutal persecution of political dissidents and fugitive Jews. Its headquarters, located near the train station, served as a centre for interrogation and torture, becoming a symbol of the violence that characterised the occupation. 

  On the German side, in addition to the Aussenkommando of the Sicherheitspolizei and the Polizeigruppe Rom of the Ordnungspolizei, units of the Wehrmacht played a key role in repression. While policing within the city was primarily handled by the security forces, the Wehrmacht oversaw security in the outskirts and along strategically vital transportation routes. 

  The cooperation between German and Italian security forces reflected the German occupiers' dependence on collaboration to maintain control in Rome. Yet, despite these efforts, the city's vast size and fluid nature made complete control unattainable, even with intensive surveillance and repression measures.

• The massacre in the Ardeatine Caves: organization and implementation

  The command outpost of the Security Police and SD was instrumental in organizing and carrying out the massacre in the Ardeatine Caves; this is generally considered the most wide-scale act of Nazi German retaliation in occupied Italy. On 23 March 1944, the GAP Partisan Brigade carried out a bombing in the Via Rasella against a unit of the South Tirol Police Battalion Bozen in which 34 German soldiers were killed. As a reaction, the German occupation authorities issued an order that ten Italians be shot and killed for every dead German soldier. This order, which presumably ultimately came directly from Hitler, led to one of the most brutal crimes committed by occupying troops in Italy.

  Under the leadership of SS-Obersturmbannführer Kappler, the command outpost took over the organisation and execution of the retaliatory action. The choice of victims was made in the Regina Coeli prison, with not only political prisoners and men convicted of crimes selected, but also Jews awaiting deportation; other civilians were also chosen at random. SS-Hauptsturmführer Carl Schütz played a central role in planning and supervising the executions.

  On 24 March 1944, the 335 victims were transported by truck to the Ardeatine Caves, where they were shot and killed in groups of five by men from the command outpost, including Kappler, Schütz, and SS-Hauptsturmführer Erich Priebke. The executions lasted until evening and ended with a dynamiting of the cave entrances to hide the corpses. Among the victims were 77 Jews and many other civilians who had nothing to do with the partisan attack.

  Alongside the massacre in the Ardeatine Caves, the command outpost was involved in other mass executions by firing squad as well, including the killing of 69 persons in Forte Bravetta. While the Security Police and SD here often had an organizing function, as a rule, the sentences were passed by court-martial through Rome’s German commandant. The executions themselves were usually carried out by Italian police under the oversight of German officers, mainly from the Wehrmacht. This was the context for the Forte Bravetta serving as another staging ground for repression during Rome’s German occupation.

• Operation Walfisch: repression and deportation in Rome’s Quadraro district

  The command outpost of the Security Police and SD played a central role in the planning and execution of Operation Walfisch, which took place on 17 April 1944 in Rome’s Quadraro district. The action was a reprisal for an attack by local partisans a few days before, in which German soldiers had been killed in a tavern; the action aimed to arrest all males between 16 and 55 in the district and deport them for slave labor.

  From the occupiers’ perspective, the Quadraro was a focal point of resistance and shelter for fugitives including anti-fascists and Allied soldiers evading capture. The Security Police and SD acted in close cooperation with the Wehrmacht, which systematically sealed off and searched the district.

  During the razzia, 700 men were arrested and initially transported to the camp at Cinecittà, from there to the Fossoli transition camp, before deportation to Germany for slave labor. The operation displayed the rigor of the occupiers’ effort to suppress any resistance. It was part of a greater strategy to secure control over Rome while simultaneously supplying workers for the Reich.

• Tasks of SD-Ausland (section VI) under SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Hass

  Under the leadership of SS-Sturmbannführer Karl Hass, the SD-Ausland (section VI) played a central role within the Rome command outpost. This was the section responsible for espionage, sabotage, and developing secret networks for operating behind Allied lines. Its tasks included recruiting and training Italian agents, to be supplied with radio equipment for collecting information from central and southern Italy after being infiltrated over the front. These activities were initially organized and coordinated from Rome.

  An especially ambitious SD-Ausland plan was acquiring a Georgian monastery as an operational base, using the help of Georgian nationalists. After the retreat from Rome, the organization first moved to Florence, then to San Ilario d’Enza near Parma, where it remained active almost until the liberation under the code name “unit Ida.” The unit’s main task was collecting political, economic, and military information from areas of Italy the Allies had liberated. It arranged training for Italian agents aimed in particular at deployment behind the front.

  In the framework of its operations, section VI also organized sabotage, aimed in particular at the Anzio bridgehead, where it tried to destroy Allied infrastructure and dynamite Allied commanders’ headquarters using seaborn agents. Because of strict Allied security measures, the operation failed, together with other sabotage efforts.

  With “unit Ida,” SD-Ausland established a wide-reaching network, supported by Italian informants, whose purpose was collecting information beyond the front. But despite this operation’s strategic significance, its impact was limited, as the Allied secret services were able to expose parts of the espionage network.

• The disbanding of the Aussenkommando Rome and the retreat to northern Italy

  With the Allied advance, on the night of 3 to 4 June 1944, the evacuation of German and fascist command units began. The command outpost of the Security Police and SD prepared the retreat: this involved not only transporting the organization’s own documents and equipment but also the contents of a large depot. According to later statements, most of these goods were destroyed by Allied air attacks during the transport.

  On the morning of 4 June, two groups of prisoners were taken from the Via Tasso torture-center and loaded onto two trucks to be brought north. While one of the trucks remained stationary because of a technical problem, the other reached the Via Cassia, stopping near the Grazioli estate near La Storta. There the fourteen political prisoners were taken to a shed and allegedly murdered by SS-Untersturmführer Hans Kahrau through shots in the neck. The reason for this sudden execution remains unclear. The victims’ corpses were left at the crime scene, underscoring the cruelty and arbitrariness tied to the command outpost’s retreat.

  After the evacuation, the Rome personnel were distributed over locations in northern Italy to strengthen existing Kommndos. A portion of the Gestapo personnel, including the former leader of Section IV (Gestapo) and V (criminal investigation ), SS-Hauptsturmführer Carl Schütz, was transferred to the Forlì Aussenkommando. Forlì now became a fulcrum for the German occupation’s repressive measures near the front; that headquarters’ activities were marked by the same methods that had been applied in Rome.

Postwar period

• The building in the Via Tasso: from Gestapo headquarters to a place of remembrance

  The building located at Via Tasso 145/155 in Rome, during the German occupation the headquarters of the Security Police and Security Service led by Herbert Kappler, was given a new function as a locus for remembrance after the war. Built in the late 1930s for Prince Francesco Ruspoli and initially rented to the German embassy, after Rome’s occupation in Sept.1943 it became a central pillar for the Gestapo’s activities. Political opponents, resistance members, and Jews were imprisoned and tortured there. Over 2,000 persons in total were imprisoned in the building’s cells over the occupation period.

  In the early postwar years the building was partially occupied by victims of the war; then, in 1950, Princess Josepha Ruspoli gave four apartments to the Italian state for use as a museum. In 1955, the Museo Storico della Liberazione was opened on the premises, as the first resistance museum in Italy. It commemorates the German occupation, the Italian resistance, and Rome’s liberation in 1944.

  The museum has three floors and displays original documents, photographs, and victims’ objects along with reconstructed prison cells. Particularly striking are wall inscriptions left by the prisoners, last messages before execution. One exhibit area is devoted to the fate of Rome’s Jews between 1938 and 1944, as well as to antisemitism in Italy more generally.