I have gotten the impression that Dott. Filippini, assigns blame to both the right 
and the left of Italy, at different times for different actions, including "cover ups". 

However, just this afternoon I received word from Dott. Filippini via Walter Santi,
that the communists (for reasons not explained) are putting up road blocks to 
his book. Ultimately he retaliated with his Cefalonia web site which has 
become immensely popular." 
========================================= 
Ben Lawton  on Anthony Grezzo

9/6/01

I would like to thank Mr. Ghezzo for his kind words. I translated/summarized 
the information on one of Dott. Filippini's pages because it seemed to me that 
the posts regarding this very troubling event did not seem to be predicated on 
what appear to be the facts.  From what I read in Dott. Filippini's pages, there 
was plenty of blame to be shared by virtually everyone involved. 

While the Allies interfered with a rescue attempt, and the Germans were the 
instruments of the massacre, according to Filippini it was the right wing, 
monarchic Badoglio government, the communist Captain Amos Pampaloni 
(who is Captain Corelli in the movie) and the cowardly, opportunistic, and 
dishonest Captain Renzo Apollonio who were truly the responsible parties.

I would like to thank Mr. Ghezzo for the outstanding job he did describing
succinctly the complex  events surrounding the Cefalonia massacre.  I would
like to stress that to the extent that I ascribed the blame for the
Cefalonia massacre and subsequent events to the left, I did so only because
that is what Dott. Filippini states in the interview on his site and in a
very recent letter to Mr. Walter Santi. I was, as I said, translating and
summarizing. 

I must also add that it is clear that Dott. Filippini attributes principal 
responsibility for the massacre to the right wing, monarchic Badoglio 
government. As I said, there is plenty of blame for everyone to share. 

Dott. Filippini's indictment of the left is predicated on the fact that the
left did  in fact bring up the massacre in the post-war years, but that they
distorted the facts by attempting to "insert the Cefalonia events into the
context of the Resistance . . ."   As proof of this Filippini adduces the
fact that the "soldiers in the division were awarded the Diploma as
Partisans, as a result of which my father was transformed from Major and
Commander of the Divisional Engineers, into the "Partisan" [quotes in the
original] Federico Filippini, belonging to the divisional "Acqui"
"Formation" [quotes in the original presumably to stress the non-military
nature of the entity], with the "job" as "partisan."

As for the preponderant role of the left in the Italian partisan struggle,
it has been the object of considerable demythologization, as has that of the
Stalinist left in the Spanish Civil War.

Regarding Gen. Mac Farlane, I am tempted to say that he was probably just
requiring that the Armistice agreements be respected.  Remember, the
Italians had been the enemy until 8 days earlier and they had not yet
officially become allies by declaring war on the Germans. Furthermore, a
week after the massacre, Eisenhower and Badoglio were still talking about
the men on Cefalonia as if they were still alive. It does not seem likely
that Mac Farlane had any more information that they did. So, if, as Mr.
Ghezzo says, Mac Farlane too was responsible--it is likely to have been at
best quite indirectly and unintentionally.

The deeper one goes into Dott. Filippini's web pages, the greater are the
ironies one encounters. According to Filippini, Captain Apollonio, who
played a significant role in precipitating the massacre, removed his rank to
avoid being executed with the other officers, became a quisling in the
service of the Germans murderers, was allowed by them to bear arms, and
broke bread with them. After the war he stated that he had "infiltrated" the
German forces.  He was believed and, on the strength of his lies about the
events on Cefalonia had a brilliant military career, retiring as a general
of the Army of Italy.

This, in any case, is Dott. Filippini's version of the events.  No doubt as
a result of the movie, more versions will appear.

[RAA:  Ben continues on to give a eloquent argument against the stupidity of 
war. 

Ben Lawton 
======================================================
> To: RAA Network- Richard Annotico
> 
> I received the message below from a friend Anthony Ghezzo, that should not
> take us off the main topic of the revelation of the Cefalonia Massacre, and
> is Only intended to provide some additional background material, and perhaps
> be a warning that political bias might influence even those people with the
> best of intentions.
> ==========================================================
> Dear Richard:
> 
> I'd like to interject my ...two cents.
> 
> I truly appreciate Professor Ben Lawton taking time to translate the
> <www.cefalonia.it/> site by Massimo Filippini for the benefit of people who
> don't read Italian. As you know I'm more proficient in Italian, my natural
> language, than in English, therefore I feel that I can add some information
> about the site mentioned above.
> 
> I'd like to make an introductory statement. When we read comments by
> different persons, it's important that we separate the description of the
> facts from what is the "opinion" of the writer in order not to get a
> distorted picture of the facts themselves. It's easy for people who write or
> report data to include personal comments which might be misconstrued as
> factual happenings.  Many people are also inclined to add a political color,
> according to their personal political conviction, which adds a shade or a
> dye that often doesn't belong there.
> 
> In the above site Filippini tends to put the blame of both the Cefalonia
> massacre and the 50 years silence of the Italian press on the post-war
> Italian governments specifically of the left. Cefalonia was a slaughter of
> gigantic proportions and there is no excuse for not bringing it to light
> before. It's a disgrace and a shame.
> 
> But in all fairness, particularly in this case, "the left" should be....left
> out 
> of the picture, especially considering that it would have been in the
> interest 
> of the left to bring it up since the Resistance that fought the Germans side
> by side with the Italian soldiers were mostly communist.
> 
> Without pointing accusatory fingers on the basis of conjectural assumptions
> and after reviewing objectively the historical facts, it would be logical to
> come to the conclusion that the responsibility of the Cefalonia massacre
> falls mostly on the ineptitude of the Badoglio government that in various
> occasions has proven to be extremely weak because of the very poor
> decisions they consistently made.
> 
> Without doubt the worst decision of Marshall Pietro Badoglio and his
> cabinet, Gen. Vittorio Ambrosio and their staff, goes back to July 25, 1943
> when Mussolini was pushed out of the picture. Badoglio, very foolishly
> mostly out of fear for his own safety, announced on the Italian radio that
> the war would continue on the side of the Germans. Such stupid decision
> didn't fool Hitler not even for a second and seven armored divisions were
> immediately dispatched to occupy Italy.
> 
> Another gigantic mistake was made on September 8, 1943 when the
> Badoglio cabinet chose to save themselves and the royal family, the
> Savoia's, fleeing Rome without giving any instruction whatsoever to the
> Military (Army, Navy and Air Force). This caused 660,000 Italian soldiers
> to be rounded up, like a bunch of sheep, by a few hundred Germans and
> shipped to concentration camps in Germany (only 60% survived the ordeal).
> What a disgrace that was!
> 
> On September 29, during a meeting on Malta, Gen.Eisenhower warned
> Marshall Badoglio that the 10,000 soldiers in Cefalonia wouldn't stand a
> chance unless Italy declared war to Germany, Badoglio still dragged his 
feet.
> With an official declaration of war the Italians would have been recognized
> officially by the Germans as "enemy", subject to all the laws of the Geneva
> Convention and not as Partisans which didn't have a legal status, but were
> considered irregular troops.
> 
> Some of the responsibility, although only indirect, for the Cefalonia
> massacre falls also on the British Gen.Mac Farlane for calling back Italian
> ships that from Malta had set sail toward Cefalonia to support the Italian
> soldiers on the island.
> 
> Anthony Ghezzo