Nine former German SS officers have been sentenced to life imprisonment in Italy for their role in a massacre in the Tuscan town of Fivizzano during the Second World War. At least 350 civilians were killed there in 1944 by Nazi troops.

The nine men live in Germany and were tried in absentia at a military court in Rome. They are aged between 84 and 90 years. During the Second World War, they were members of the elite SS corps which executed the civilians in reprisal for resistance by communist partisans. The German state was also ordered to pay compensation to some of the relatives.

Photo: Flickr Gwilmore