World War II vets who fought Nazis have message for Charlottesville marchers [View all]
Caesar Civitella, who killed more than a dozen Nazis in World War II and helped capture more than 3,800, has a message for the neo-Nazis who staged a deadly rally in Virginia over the weekend.
"I would tell them that we have no use for Hitler-type philosophy in the U.S. and that they can either stop being a Nazi or people will give them bodily injury," said Civitella, 93, of St. Petersburg.
Civitella was reacting to a march Saturday in Charlottesville, Va., in which one of the neo-Nazis is accused of driving a car into a crowd of counter-protesters, killing one and injuring 19. Additionally, two Virginia State Police officers were killed when their helicopter, which was monitoring the rally, crashed.
During the war, Civitella served with the Office of Strategic Services, a forerunner of the CIA. On Aug. 29, 1944, he and a team of fellow OSS operators jumped into occupied France to help the French resistance. Working with the French Maquis, he helped capture nearly 4,000 Nazis, according to his official government biography.
Seeing the neo-Nazis marching, he said, "was terrible.
http://www.tampabay.com/news/military/war/world-war-ii-vets-who-fought-nazis-have-message-for-charlottlesville/2333715
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