Banda Koch
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Pietro Koch (18 August 1918 – 4 June 1945) was an Italian soldier and leader of the Banda Koch, a group notorious for its anti-partisan activity in the
Italian Social Republic The Italian Social Republic (, ; RSI; , ), known prior to December 1943 as the National Republican State of Italy (; SNRI), but more popularly known as the Republic of Salò (, ), was a List of World War II puppet states#Germany, German puppe ...
.


Biography

The son of an
Imperial German Navy The Imperial German Navy or the ''Kaiserliche Marine'' (Imperial Navy) was the navy of the German Empire, which existed between 1871 and 1919. It grew out of the small Prussian Navy (from 1867 the North German Federal Navy), which was mainly for ...
officer, Koch was born in
Benevento Benevento ( ; , ; ) is a city and (municipality) of Campania, Italy, capital of the province of Benevento, northeast of Naples. It is situated on a hill above sea level at the confluence of the Calore Irpino (or Beneventano) and the Sabato (r ...
.
Philip Rees Philip Rees (born 1941) is a British writer and librarian formerly in charge of acquisitions at the J. B. Morrell Library, University of York. He has written books on fascism and the extreme right. Works *'' Fascism in Britain'' (Harvester P ...
, ''
Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890 The ''Biographical Dictionary of the Extreme Right Since 1890'' is a reference book by Philip Rees, on leading people in the various far right movements since 1890. It contains entries for what the author regards as "the 500 major figures on the ...
'', 1990, p. 212
Koch served as a
lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a Junior officer, junior commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations, as well as fire services, emergency medical services, Security agency, security services ...
in the Grenadiers where he was unpopular with his fellow soldiers and was dismissed from the
Royal Italian Army The Royal Italian Army () (RE) was the land force of the Kingdom of Italy, established with the proclamation of the Kingdom of Italy. During the 19th century Italy started to unify into one country, and in 1861 Manfredo Fanti signed a decree c ...
in 1939 for insulting a superior officer. Recalled on the eve of the war, he saw continuous service until the armistice of 3 September 1943, after which he moved to
Florence Florence ( ; ) is the capital city of the Italy, Italian region of Tuscany. It is also the most populated city in Tuscany, with 362,353 inhabitants, and 989,460 in Metropolitan City of Florence, its metropolitan province as of 2025. Florence ...
. Settling in the Social Republic in the north of Italy, Koch joined the Special Service of Republican Police led by
Tullio Tamburini Tullio Tamburini (22 April 1892 – 2 November 1957) was an Italian soldier, adventurer and fascist official. Life Born in Prato, Tamburini had been a schoolteacher in Florence but was sacked from his job. He then made his way as a petty crimina ...
. In January 1944, he established the ''Banda Koch'' as a special task force charged with hunting down
partisans Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Itali ...
and rounding up deportees, including Jews, for the Germans. Koch came under the protection of SS-''
Obersturmbannführer __NOTOC__ ''Obersturmbannführer'' (Senior Assault-unit Leader; ; short: ''Ostubaf'') was a paramilitary rank in the German Nazi Party ( NSDAP) which was used by the SA (''Sturmabteilung'') and the SS (''Schutzstaffel''). The rank of ' was juni ...
''
Herbert Kappler Herbert Kappler (23 September 1907 – 9 February 1978) was a key German SS functionary and war criminal during the Nazi era. He served as the commander of German security police and security services (''Sicherheitspolizei'' and SD) in Rome d ...
, SD chief in Koch's base of
Rome Rome (Italian language, Italian and , ) is the capital city and most populated (municipality) of Italy. It is also the administrative centre of the Lazio Regions of Italy, region and of the Metropolitan City of Rome. A special named with 2, ...
, and as such had a free hand to employ whatever tactics he saw fit with Banda Koch, which soon became a by-word for cruelty and violence. Koch was given his own prisons and torture chambers and continued his activity in Florence and then
Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...
following the fall of Rome to the
Allies An alliance is a relationship among people, groups, or states that have joined together for mutual benefit or to achieve some common purpose, whether or not an explicit agreement has been worked out among them. Members of an alliance are calle ...
. Along with police chief
Pietro Caruso Pietro Caruso (10 November 1899 in Maddaloni – 22 September 1944 in Rome) was an Italian Fascist and head of the Rome police in 1944. Born in Campania in 1899, he fought in the Bersaglieri in the final months of World War I and participated ...
, who was independently involved in the killing of partisans, Koch was behind hundreds of deaths; the Social Republic government even ordered an amnesty for political prisoners not charged with murder out of fear that Koch would have them killed. ''Il Duce'' eventually had his close ally
Renzo Montagna Renzo Montagna (13 March 1894 – 6 July 1978) was an Italian Blackshirt, policeman and general during World War II. After the Armistice of Cassibile he joined the Italian Social Republic, becoming the last commander of the MVSN before its ...
arrest Koch for his excesses in October 1944. He soon fell into Allied hands, was tried by an Italian tribunal and was convicted of six charges only under Italian law at the High Court since the
laws of war The law of war is a component of international law that regulates the conditions for initiating war (''jus ad bellum'') and the conduct of hostilities (''jus in bello''). Laws of war define sovereignty and nationhood, states and territories, ...
at the time had no provisions dealing with non-international armed conflict (NIAC). He was executed at Rome's Forte Bravetta aged 26.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Koch, Pietro 1918 births 1945 deaths 20th-century executions by Italy Executed mass murderers Royal Italian Army personnel of World War II Italian mass murderers Italian people of German descent Italian police officers Italian people executed for war crimes Holocaust perpetrators in Italy Politicide perpetrators People from Benevento People of the Italian Social Republic People convicted of torture People executed for treason against Italy Police officers executed for murder Police officers executed for treason