Jewish groups have expressed outrage that a former Nazi SS captain convicted for his role in the massacre of 335 civilians in Italy is allowed out from his house detention to go shopping or to church.
Erich Priebke's lawyer announced this week that an Italian court last year granted the 97-year-old German permission to leave his detention for the "indispensable needs for his life."
An official of an organization of Holocaust survivors, Elan Steinberg, said in an e-mail Wednesday that the court's action is a "national disgrace."
Priebke was extradited from Argentina in 1994. He was convicted three years later for his role in the massacre in Nazi-occupied Rome. It was carried out in retaliation for an attack by Italian resistance fighters that killed 33 Nazis.
