Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke has spokne from beyond the grave as his lawyer released a final "video testament" for the man convicted of executing 335 civilians in caves near Rome.
Speaking in heavily accented Italian in the undated video, Priebke was unrepentant about his role in the Fosse Ardeatine massacre and blamed partisan resistance fighters for causing it.
The 1944 mass killing by the Nazis was a retaliation against a partisan attack in which 33 German soldiers were killed.
The Nazis shot 10 Italian civilians for each German soldier and five more who were brought to the caves by mistake.
"They carried out the attack knowing there would be retaliation... They thought a retaliation by us would trigger a revolution," Priebke said.
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The Holocaust denier said a fellow SS officer "said it was Hitler's order to carry out the execution and whoever did not want to take part should stand with the victims and be shot".
"It was terrible for us doing something like that," the elderly Priebke said, without in any way apologising to the families of his victims.
Asked by an off-camera interlocutor whether he could have disobeyed the execution order, Priebke said: "Of course it was impossible".
The video was released as Italy struggled with a legal conundrum over how to dispose of Priebke's body after a funeral mass by a Catholic traditionalist splinter group sparked clashes on Tuesday.
