Kurt Mälzer, Gemran Luftwaffe General and War Criminal - Autograph telegram

Kurt Mälzer (1894-1952)
German Luftwaffe General and war criminal, appointed as military commander of Rome in 1943 and responsible for giving the orders to commit the Ardeatine massacre in March 1944.
Autograph telegram signed ('Mälzer, Generalleutnant'), Wolfsberg, 18th July (1946) to Wolfgang Christ in Rimini, asking him to come 'for the purpose of giving legal advice for the lodging of a new petition'.

Notes: On 1 October 1943, Mälzer was promoted to Generalleutnant and ordered to become garrison commander and commandant of the occupied city of Rome. In 1944 he became the highest ranking individual directly associated with the Ardeatine massacre, in which 335 Italian civilians and soldiers were killed in retaliation, following a partisan attack on German troops that had taken place the day before in Via Rasella, Rome.

Under apparent orders from Adolf Hitler, he ordered the massacre, which was then planned and carried out by the SS troops under Herbert Kappler. After the war, Mälzer was imprisoned by the Allies and sentenced to death by a British military tribunal. He successfully appealed to have his sentence reduced, commuting it to a prison term. He died in prison in 1952. Dr. Wolfgang Christ appears to have been employed as defence counsel for Mälzer during his trial.