to lower German morale. Although the weapons and explosives he
ordered never arrived and his group was temporarily penetrated by a
Gestapo informer, the underground movement he created remained
largely intact and came to include contacts in the Deutsche Bank,
the Reichsbahn railway, and the Stinnes and Krupp steel companies.
In the last days of the war, Kappius’s group prevented the escape of
several Nazis as well as the destruction of food supply depots and
factories. Flown back to England by the Americans on 9 April 1945,
Kappius later returned to Germany and became an elected representa-
tive of the Sozialdemokratische Partei Deutschlands in North Rhine-
Westphalia. He died on 30 December 1967.KAPPLER, HERBERT (1907–1978). A leading SS official in Rome
and principal perpetrator of the Ardeatine Massacre, Herbert Kappler
was born in Stuttgart on 29 September 1907. Assigned to Rome as
a liaison to the Italian police in 1939, he became the city’s Gestapo
chief following Italy’s defection from the Axis. In this capacity, he
ordered a mass reprisal for the partisan bombing that had killed 33
Germans in the Via Rasella. On 24 March 1944, 335 Italians were
executed at the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome. Arrested by British
forces the following year, Kappler was tried by an Italian military
court in 1948 and given a life sentence. A diagnosis of terminal
cancer resulted in his transfer to a military hospital in Rome. On 15
August 1977, Kappler’s wife smuggled him out of the hospital in a
large suitcase and back to the Federal Republic of Germany, where
the Bonn government refused Italy’s request for extradition. Kappler
died shortly thereafter on 9 February 1978 in Soltau (Lower Saxony).
See also HASS, KARL.
KARLSHORST. The East Berlin district where Soviet military and
intelligence forces were headquartered after 1945, Karlshorst soon
became synonymous with the MGB and later KGB residency. Origi-
nally a Wehrmacht school and then the seat of the Soviet Adminis-
tration in Germany, the main building was located in the Zwieseler
Strasse and occupied by the KGB from 1954 to 1991. The largest
KGB operation outside the Soviet Union, it employed about 600
workers. Having sustained only light damage during World War II,
the area further provided housing for the security personnel.
222 • KAPPLER, HERBERT