Cross in Gold for using Italian units, with secondary German units, to destroy partisans and for the "maintenance of war production in the Italian territory". During this period he approved the project of the Marnate's Bunker, close to the German command of Olgiate Olona. By 1945 Wolff was acting military commander of Italy. In 1945, Wolff, under Operation Sunrise, took over command and management of intermediaries (including the Swiss Intelligence officer, Captain Max Waibel) in order to make contact in Switzerland with the regional headquarters of the US Office of Strategic Services, under Allen W. Dulles, with a view to the surrender of German forces in and around Italy. After meetings in Zurich on 8 March 1945 and in Ascona on 19 March 1945 and a diplomatic standoff in Lucerne (23 to 25 April 1945) Wolff negotiated the surrender of all German forces in Italy (signed 29 April 1945, effective 2 May 1945), before the war in Europe officially ended with the surrender of Germany signed on 8 May 1945. Wolff's capitulation of Italy to the Allies upset the plans of Admiral Karl Dönitz (German President from 30 April 1945) who envisaged a staged series of surrenders designed to give German troops and refugees more time to make their way west. Trials and conviction Arrested on 13 May 1945, he was imprisoned in Schöneberg. During the Nuremberg trials, Wolff was allowed to escape prosecution because of his early capitulation in Italy and by appearing as a witness for the prosecution at trial. Although released in 1947, he had been indicted by the post-war German government as part of the denazification process. Detained under house arrest, after a German trial, Wolff was sentenced in November 1948 and served four years in prison. After his release, Wolff worked as an executive for an advertising agency. He took up residence with his family in Starnberg. In 1962 during the trial in Israel of Adolf Eichmann, evidence showed that Wolff had organized the deportation of Italian Jews in 1944. Wolff was again tried in West Germany and in 1964 was convicted of deporting 300,000 Jews to the Treblinka extermination camp, which led to their murder. Sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment in Straubing, Wolff served only part of his sentence and was released in 1971 following a heart attack. Later life After his release, Wolff retired to Austria. In the late 1970s and early 1980s,