Michael Seifert, SS Guard at Camp in Italy, Dies at 86
Michael Seifert had settled into a quiet retirement in Vancouver, British Columbia, living in a little white stucco house, gardening in the backyard. A former lumber mill worker, he had a seemingly pristine, if prosaic, background.
But Mr. Seifert, who died Saturday, had concealed another identity that emerged only after a researcher in 1995 began collecting oral histories and photographs from Jews, political prisoners and others who had been incarcerated at Bolzano, the Nazi concentration camp in northern Italy, during World War II.
There, Mr. Seifert had been known as the “Beast of Bolzano,” for his brutality as a guard.
The researcher, Carla Giacomozzi, who was head of the historical archives for the Bolzano region, had heard story upon story about two guards, Misha and Otto, who had committed heinous cruelties, including rape, torture and murder....
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But Mr. Seifert, who died Saturday, had concealed another identity that emerged only after a researcher in 1995 began collecting oral histories and photographs from Jews, political prisoners and others who had been incarcerated at Bolzano, the Nazi concentration camp in northern Italy, during World War II.
There, Mr. Seifert had been known as the “Beast of Bolzano,” for his brutality as a guard.
The researcher, Carla Giacomozzi, who was head of the historical archives for the Bolzano region, had heard story upon story about two guards, Misha and Otto, who had committed heinous cruelties, including rape, torture and murder....