"I know who you are," Dorotea said. "Cletus has told me all about you, and so has my father."
"This is now properly yours," the Old Man said, and handed her a square of folded tissue.
She unfolded it. It was an engagement ring, with what looked like a four-carat emerald-cut diamond.
"I don't understand," Dorotea said.
"What the hell is that?" Clete asked suspiciously.
"It's your mother's engagement ring," the Old Man said. "Jorge Guillermo Frade gave it to your mother, and now I'm giving it to this young lady. What she sees in you is beyond me, but if she's going to marry you, she damned well deserves it, and a lot more."
"Thank you," Dorotea said, and then kissed him.
The Old Man looked embarrassed. But pleased.
A HALF CENTURY LATER WE HAVE YET
TO COME TO THE END OF THE STORY
Priebke Extradited to Italy Today
San Carlos De Bariloche
On the eve of his extradi-tion to Italy to stand trial for allegedly participat-ing in a massacre of 335 civil-ians, former SS Captain Erich Priebke said in an interview yes-terday the Vatican had tried to stop the killings.
"The Vatican requested clemency in every way possible and even appealed to the German Embassy," Priebke told the La Mariana del Sur daily.
Priebke, 82, will be extra-dited to Rome today to await trial. The massacre, in the Ardeatine Caves outside Rome in 1944, was ordered by Hitler to avenge the killing of 32 German soldiers in an ambush.
Priebke has been under house arrest in Bariloche for 17 months since admitting a role in the killings. He has said his task was to cross out the names of victims as they were led into the caves to be executed.
"I was just obeying orders," he said in the interview. "All I knew was that they (the victims) belonged to the Italian Resis-tance in some way."
Argentina's Supreme Court ordered Priebke's extradition to Rome on November 2.
An Italian delegation, in-cluding Interpol officers and a military doctor, arrived yesterday in Bariloche.
According to unconfirmed local press reports, the officials were expected to fly back to Rome with Priebke today at 8 am. Argentine authorities will hand over Priebke to Italian au-thorities at the local airport, the reports said.
Priebke had lived openly in Argentina since escaping from a British prison camp in 1946. He worked as a waiter in Buenos Aires before moving to Bar-iloche, where he ran a delicatessen.
"Between March 23 and 24 (1944), Pope Pius XII tried to avoid the reprisal. A great number of Vatican envoys were sent everywhere," Priebke told La Mahana del Sur. He said the Vatican appealed to the German Embassy in Rome and to military leaders, including himself and his superior Herbert Kappler. (DYN-Reuter)
Priebke's attorney Pedro Bianchi said yesterday that the case was historically significant because it involved "the last Nazi." Today marks the 50th anniversary of the Nuremberg trials in which Nazis were tried for committing crimes against hu-manity during World War II. (Reuter-NA)
The Buenos Aires Herald, Buenos Aires, Argentina
November 20, 1995
Priebke Gone, Hugs Cops, Latter in Trouble
San Carlos de Bariloche
Argentina extradited for-mer Nazi officer Erich Priebke to Italy yester-day to face trial for his role in that country's worst World War II atrocity-the Ardeatine Caves massacre of 335 men and boys.
The former SS captain, now 82, was taken from his home in Bariloche to an airplane sent by Italy to take him to Rome.
He looked serene as he smiled and waved goodbye from the tarmac before boarding the Falcon DA 90 aircraft.