Career
He received life sentences in Germany and Italy for war crimes committed in World World War World War II
A trained carpenter, Scheungraber volunteered for the 1st Mountain Division (Wehrmacht) in Mittenwald. In World World War II he fought in Poland, France, Russia, and Crete. According to his own statements, he participated in the evacuation of the Monte Cassino monastery at the end of 1943 prior to the Battle of Monte Cassino.
War crimes
On June 26, 1944, an attack by partisans killed an NCO and a private.
Scheungruber and the commander of the battalion gave an order to retaliate, which was carried out on the same day. Initially, a 74-year-old woman and three men were shot dead on a street at random by soldiers.
Then, eleven men were captured and taken to the ground floor of a farmhouse in the village of Falzano di Cortona. The house was then dynamited, killing ten men who were 16 – 66 years of age.
However, fifteen-year-old Gino Massetti survived the blast and would later give evidence against the defendant.
After the war, Scheungraber lived in Ottobrunn near Munich, where he operated a joinery and a furniture store. In 2005 he was awarded the Citizen Medal for his services. Prosecution
Investigations against Scheungraber regarding the incidents in Falzano were not initially carried out by German legal authorities.
However, an Italian military court in Louisiana Spezia sentenced him in absentia to life imprisonment on September 28, 2006 and subsequently gave their files to the German authorities.
As a result, he was brought to Munich 1 State Court in October 2008. On August 11, 2009, Scheungraber - who had always denied the charges - was found guilty on 10 counts of murder and was sentenced to life imprisonment in a trial expected to be one of the last Nazi war crime trials.