Italy on Wednesday marked the 70th anniversary of the roundup and deportation of Jews from Rome�s ghetto amid turmoil over the late Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke and his Holocaust-denying final statement.

Priebke died Friday in Rome, where he was serving a life term for his role in the 1944 massacre of 335 civilians at the Ardeatine Caves outside the capital. It was one of the worst atrocities of Germany�s World War II occupation of Italy.

His death unleashed a torrent of emotion because he left behind a testament in which he not only defended his actions but denied that Jews were gassed in Nazi concentration camps.

His testament has enraged Rome�s Jewish community, which gathered Wednesday in Rome�s main synagogue to commemorate the Oct. 16, 1943, roundup of Jews and warn of the continued dangers posed by Holocaust deniers like Priebke.

The head of Italy�s Jewish communities, Renzo Gattegna, referred to Priebke in his remarks but refused, amid applause, to pronounce his name �to not profane this sacred place.�

He said the Nazis were assassins of innocents.

�Their followers are assassins of memory. They will never win,� he declared.

On Tuesday, a Senate committee passed a bill criminalizing such Holocaust denial � passage that was given greater impulse because of the outcry over Priebke�s final testament.

The head of Rome�s Jewish community, Riccardo Pacifici, said the uproar over Priebke has shown the �beautiful face of Italy,� given the solidarity by both civil and Catholic Church officials to deny him a church funeral.

The anniversary came during the continued debate about what to do with Priebke�s remains. Plans by a fringe Catholic church to celebrate a funeral Mass for him were called off Tuesday amid clashes between Priebke�s right-wing supporters and protesters.

Rome�s mayor and prefect announced that negotiations were underway with Germany to take in the remains, which reportedly were spirited out of the church compound overnight and taken to a military air base.

Wednesday�s commemorations began at 5:30 a.m. with the sounding of the shofar, a ram�s horn trumpet, to commemorate the moment when Nazi forces began rounding up more than 1,000 Jews from Rome�s ghetto and nearby neighborhoods.

The Jews spent two days in a military college before being deported by train to Auschwitz. Only 16 survived.

(AP)