Ustasha colonel
A construction engineer by profession, Piccili was born in Slavonska Požega. He visited the Jasenovac Camp several times during 1941 in his capacity as Luburić’s expert advisor. He joined the Ustasha Defence in 1942 and was immediately appointed commandant of the work details in Jasenovac Camp III (Brickworks). He remained in this position until the end of 1944, when he was appointed camp commandant.
According to prisoner testimony, he personally constructed a primitive crematorium, using brick furnaces, in which prisoners were burnt, dead or alive, between February and May 1942.
Piccili was named by prisoners as one of the most brutal Ustashas during the camp’s entire existence. As the commandant of the work details, he imposed methods of forced labour, whip in hand, in combination with sheer cruelty and murder.
From early 1945, with the former commandants of Camp III (Brickworks), Ljubo Miloš, Dinko Šakić and Miroslav Filipović Majstorović organised the cremation of prisoners who had been murdered or had died, in order to cover up traces of the crimes committed. He participated in the liquidation of the remaining prisoners in April 1945. At the end of the war, all trace of him was lost.