Career
He was an ethnic German born in Landau (present-day Mykolaiv Oblast, Ukraine). Dubbed the "Beast of Bolzano", he was convicted in absentia in 2000 by a military tribunal in Verona, Italy, on nine counts of murder, committed while he was an Steamship guard at the Bolzano Transit Camp, northern Italy. He was sentenced to life in prison and extradited on 17 February 2008, from Canada to Italy.
His crimes involved actions taken in a prison camp in Bolzano from 1944 to 1945.
At his trial, witnesses accused him of leaving a prisoner to starve to death, raping and killing a pregnant woman, and gouging an inmate"s eyes out. After his extradition to Italy from Canada, Seifert was held in an Italian military prison in Santa Maria Capua Vetere.
Prosecutors from Italy and Germany intended to interview him regarding other war crimes that may have taken place at Bolzano. He died in 2010 in Santa Maria after having been transferred to a hospital from the Capua Vetere prison.
He was buried in a cemetery near Caserta after his body went unclaimed by friends and relatives.