Italy seeks former soldier over 1943 Cephalonia massacre

Antipodean Andy · Nov 27, 2008

Italy seeks German ex-soldier over 'Captain Corelli' massacre: report - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Italian military prosecutors are seeking to try a former German soldier in connection with a massacre of Italian troops on the island made famous in the novel and film Captain Corelli's Mandolin, a report said.

La Republica daily said their target was Otmar Muelhauser, 88, who as a junior officer commanded the firing squad which shot General Antonio Gandin, head of the Italian Acqui division, on the island of Cephalonia in 1943.

German troops massacred the division which was occupying the Greek island after Italy surrendered in World War II and went over to the allies.

La Repubblica said Muelhauser, who now lives at Dillingen, near Munich, had said several times he was only doing his duty as the Germans considered the Italians as traitors.

Italian prosecutors opened an inquiry into Muelhauser in March 2004 at the request of the sons of two victims of the massacre.

German prosecutors shelved their own investigations in 2007.

According to Italian historians, some 5,000 members of the Acqui division were shot by the Germans after surrendering at the end of a week-long battle in September 1943.

They had voted to resist after being called on to lay down their arms when Italy changed sides.

Gandin, who refused to be blindfolded, died crying, "Long live Italy, long live the king," according to Muelhauser's own account.

The incident was the climax of Louis de Bernieres prize-winning best-seller Captain Corelli's Mandolin, which was also made into a film.

The only German officer to be tried for the massacre was General Hubert Lanz, commander of the unit responsible, the XXII Corps, was sentenced to 12 years in jail by the Nuremberg war crimes court in 1948.
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liverpool annie · Nov 29, 2008

The only German officer to be tried for the massacre was General Hubert Lanz commander of the unit responsible, the XXII Corps, was sentenced to 12 years in jail by the Nuremberg war crimes court in 1948.
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Lanz was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment .... a comparatively light sentence compared with other commanders involved with operations in the Balkans ..... however after only three years - on 3 February 1951 - he was released .... to date - he is the only person to have served a prison sentence for the atrocities committed in Epirus or the Ionian islands.

He died in Munich in 1982.

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