Eric Priebke: Nazi war criminal shows no remorse for 1944 massacre of 300 Italian men in video Eric Priebke was serving a life sentence 1944 massacre of Ardeatine Caves Claims he would have been killed if he had not killed the men and boys Says carrying out the execution style murders was a 'terrible' experience The Nazi war criminal, who died aged 100 last week, has spoken from beyond the grave in a video released posthumously by his lawyer. Former SS captain Eric Priebke was serving a life sentence in Rome for his part in the 1944 massacre of the Ardeatine Caves. Spoken from the grave: Eric Priebke the Nazi war criminal, who died aged 100 last week, has spoken from beyond the grave in a video released posthumously by his lawyer The tape will bring little solace to the relatives of those who died. In the footage, recorded before he died, Priebke continues to show no remorse, claiming instead that if he had refused to follow the orders he would have been executed alongside his victims. Incredibly, Priebke even attempts to solicit pity, by describing the reality of having to carry out the execution style murders as a "terrible" experience, for him more so than others who had more experience with death. He said: "Like for anyone else it was terrible to have to do such a thing. Captain Schultz the organiser, had fought in Russia against the Red Army, so he was more used to death, but for others like me and my colleagues it was a terrible thing. It would have been unthinkable to refuse the direct order from the Fuhrer, Priebke claimed. Naturally it was impossible to refuse. Schultz said it was an order from Hitler and we had to carry it out. He said if anyone didn't want to do it they may as well line up with those who were to be executed. There was no other way. Refusing to make any apology for his crimes, Priebke instead blamed the resistance fighters, for provoking the attack. The partisans were fully aware of the consequences, he said. What happened in Via Rasella was that the CAP the communists attacked a troop of German police. They did this knowing there would be a reprisal. The commander when he arrived in Rome had put on the wall warnings that any attack against Germans would meet with a reprisal. They knew that and they did it anyway. The tape was released, as an extract of much more extensive footage, by lawyer Paolo Ghiachini as a battle raged over Priebke's final burial place. Violent protests by Jewish and anti-fascist groups had disrupted his funeral in Italy. And Priebke's birth town of Hennigsdorf in South Germany had claimed they only offered burial to residents. Argentina's foreign minister said accepting the body would be "an affront to human dignity" Priebke's coffin was on Friday awaiting a decision at the a military airport in Rome. Ghiachini said that it was "possible" that the corpse would be buried in Germany. The former Nazi was casually dressed for the interview at his home in an open necked blue shirt and black waistcoat. Priebke who speaks in fluent Italian appears lucid and articulate. It is not clear when the tape was recorded. Text that flashed onto the screen at the beginning says the subject of the interview is his autobiography Vae Victis (Woe to the Vanquished) which was published in 2003. Priebke started his career as a teenage waiter working all over Europe including the Italian Riviera and a happy stint between 1933 and 1935 at the Savoy. He later told friends of the exhilaration of watching the Silver Jubilee of George V. He joined the Gestapo as a translator where he was swiftly promoted and posted to Rome. At the end of the war he was captured by Allied troops but escaped from a British POW camp on New Year's Eve 1947. He fled to Argentina where he ran a delicatessen and lived openly until tracked down and interviewed by an American journalist. In 1995 he was deported to Italy and given a life sentence. Because of his age he was allowed to serve his time under house arrest at the home of his lawyer.