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WW II massacre trial begins in Italy

LA SPEZIA, Italy, July 1 (UPI) -- An Italian military court is trying in absentia six former Nazi SS officers for the massacre of 560 women and children in 1944, The Telegraph said Thursday.

Under German law, the six Germans remained safely at home, although one soldier from the 16th SS Reichsfuhrer division, Ludwig Goring, offered chilling testimony of how an entire town was wiped out in one day.

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The trial is being held in the town of La Spezia, and has attracted hundreds of survivors and their families.

Goring confessed to killing 20 women and told the magistrates he is still haunted by the imagery.

The massacre took place in the village of Sant'Anna di Stazzema, home to many anti-Nazi partisans. As the Germans retreated, the resistance fighters left, believing the Germans would be seeking them. Instead, the women and children were lined up and shot with machine guns, and then doused with gasoline and torched.

Of the six accused German pensioners, all deny taking part and several deny ever being in the town, the newspaper said.

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