Caiazzo massacre

The Caiazzo massacre (Italian: Eccidio di Caiazzo, German: Massaker von Caiazzo) was the massacre of 22 Italian civilians at Caiazzo, Campania, Southern Italy, on 13 October 1943, during World War II by members of the German 3rd Panzergrenadier Division. The massacre was described as having been of a particularly brutal nature and its leader, Lieutenant Wolfgang Lehnigk-Emden, was soon after captured by Allied forces. Lehnigk-Emden confessed to part of the crime but was later accidentally released and, for the next four decades, was not put on trial. In 1994 an Italian court sentenced Lehnigk-Emden and a non-commissioned officer of the division, Kurt Schuster, to life imprisonment in absentia, but neither was extradited by Germany. Lehnigk-Emden was also put on trial in Germany in a case that went to the high court, the Bundesgerichtshof; he was found guilty but released as the statute of limitations had expired. This caused considerable outrage in both Germany and Italy because of the particularly brutal nature of the crime.