Thursday,
November 27, 2008
The
ANNOTICO Report
During
WWII, 5,000 of the Italian Acqui division stationed
on the Greek
The
macabre event was immortalized in the novel and
film "Captain Corelli's
Mandolin"
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
German troops
massacred the division which was occupying the Greek island after
La Repubblica said Muelhauser, who
now lives at Dillingen, near
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
Gandin, who refused to be
blindfolded, died crying, "Long live
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
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