Massacre in Kefalonia

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The Kefalonia massacre was a war crime committed by the Wehrmacht during World War II . German troops shot 5,200 soldiers from the Italian "Acqui" division who surrendered to parts of the German 1st Mountain Division on the Greek island of Kefalonia on September 21 and 22, 1943 .

prehistory

After the victory of the Axis powers in the Balkan campaign (1941) over Greece , the island of Kefalonia by German and Italian troops occupied. The crew consisted of 12,000 soldiers from the Italian "Acqui" infantry division and the German fortress grenadier battalions 909 and 810 with a total of 2,000 men. The command of the Acqui division was General Gandin and that of the German troops was Lieutenant Colonel Johannes Barge.

September 1943

When Italy surrendered to the Allies on September 8, 1943 ( Armistice of Cassibile ) and changed the fronts, the lack of orders and news from Rome initially led to violent confusion in the Italian staffs in Greece. The German Wehrmacht should now (see Axis case ) disarm the Italian army and bring the previous Italian occupation areas under control. On September 9, Gandin and Lt. Col. Barge began negotiations about the future of the Acqui Division. As a sign of goodwill, Gandin ordered the withdrawal from the strategically important Kardakata.

September 11

Order 1027 / CS of the Italian High Command
Order 1029 / CS of the Italian High Command

Although Gandin had received the command "1027 / CS" from Rome on September 11, 1943 from the "Comando Supremo" , the highest army command, "to consider the German troops as hostile" ("considerare le troupe tedesche nemiche"), he decided Nevertheless, against the resistance of his staff and his regimental commanders, to lay down his arms on September 13th at eight o'clock in the morning, but on the condition that the final disarmament of his troops may only take place as soon as the ships for the return of his troops to Italy Kefalonia would have achieved. Another order from Rome “1029 / CS”, which arrived on the evening of September 11th, said that “attempts by the Germans to disarm on Kefalonia, Corfu and other islands must be resisted by force of arms” (“che deve resistere con le armi at intimazione tedesca di disarmo a Cefalonia et Corfù et altre isole ”), was ignored by Gandin.

12th September

On the afternoon of September 12th, soldiers from both nations clashed heavily when members of the Wehrmacht disarmed two Italian artillery departments in their sector. Gandin gave orders not to react and negotiated on condition that there would be no further changes to the status quo until the negotiations were completed. Violators would respond by force of arms by his troops.

13.september

When the next morning - September 13th - the Wehrmacht tried to land reinforcements at Argostoli , the three remaining batteries of the 33rd Artillery Regiment opened fire and sank two of the five landing craft, whereby five German soldiers were killed. Despite his orders and against the will of his officers and men, Gandin continued to negotiate, in order to finally lay down his arms and achieve a return of his troops to German-occupied Italy. Therefore, he refused to meet any allied military delegation that had arrived in the meantime. At 9:30 p.m. on the same day, Lieutenant Colonel Barge radioed the headquarters of the XXII. Mountain Army Corps that he had reached an agreement with General Gandin. The disarmament of the Italians will take place in three phases: beginning with the troops in and around Argostoli on September 14th, followed by the Italian troops in the southeast of Kephalonia on September 15th. Finally the troops around Sami were to surrender on September 16 and all prisoners of war were to be gathered there to be embarked for Italy.

However, that night Gandin had his entire division questioned in a referendum which of three options they wanted to choose:

  • continue to fight alongside the Germans,
  • surrender
  • fight against the Germans.

September 14th

Lieutenant Thun's radio message

On the morning of September 14th, the result was clear: all companies had opted for the third option. At twelve o'clock on the same day, Gandin handed Lieutenant of the Wehrmacht Jakob Fauth a letter to Lieutenant Colonel Barge, in which he stated: “The division refuses to carry out my order to assemble [in] the Sami area ... Hence the agreements with you not accepted by the division yesterday. The division wants to stay at its post ... that it [may] keep its weapons and ammunition and that [it will only hand over the artillery to the Germans at the moment of embarkation. The division gives a guarantee on its honor that it will not turn its arms against the Germans. If this does not happen, the division will prefer to fight ... and I will, albeit painfully, definitely forego negotiating with the German side by staying at the head of my division ... ”The German radioed at 10 pm on the same day Crew of Kefalonia to the headquarters of the XXII. Mountain Army Corps: “Negotiations are still ongoing. Kdr still with General Gandin. Prepared for use in conjunction with Stukaleitoffizier. Thun Ltn ". For the operation against Kefalonia the Stukas from Megara (I. Stukageschwader 3) were relocated from Megara to Araxos in order to fly two missions daily over the next few days. On September 21st, the Stuka group flew four missions against the Italian troops on the island.

September 15th

On the morning of September 15th, Lieutenant Colonel Barge radioed his superiors: “General Gandin has only found himself ready to hand over the heavy weapons that have been fixed. He does not want to hand over the mobile artillery and anti-aircraft guns until embarkation. Own attack preparations completed. Best time to start the attack 14h. The night went quietly. "

Lieutenant Colonel Barges radio message

At 12:30 began dive bombers (Stuka) of the Air Force with the bombing of the Italian positions in Argostoli. At around 2 p.m. General Gandin ordered the fight to begin. The Italians had several initial successes - the 17th Infantry Regiment succeeded in taking 500 German soldiers prisoner on September 15. In the course of the next few days, however, the Wehrmacht landed reinforcements under the command of General Hubert Lanz , consisting of parts of the 1st Mountain Division (mainly the 98 Mountain Infantry Regiment) and parts of the 104th Jäger Division , and the tide began to turn.

September 17th and 18th

Lieutenant Colonel J. Barge was relieved of his position as island commander by General Hubert Lanz because of the "previous warfare and because of the combat impression on the spot". Major Harald von Hirschfeld was commissioned to carry out the entire operation .

On the morning of September 18, heavy fighting broke out near the Kimonico bridge, with 437 Italians killed. On the same day, the Wehrmacht High Command issued the order that “no Italian prisoners are to be taken because of the mean and treasonous behavior on Kephalonia”.

September 21 and later

On September 21, there was fierce fighting near Pharsa, with 830 Italians, mostly Stuka attacks by Groups I and II, Stukageschwader 3, which operated from Araxos, fell victim to. In total, more than 1,300 Italians fell in the fighting on Kefalonia. The German losses amounted to 40 men. As of the morning of September 21, the German troops stopped taking prisoners and shot every soldier who surrendered on the spot. Entire companies were shot after their arms were extended. By 4 p.m. the next day, when General Gandin officially surrendered, 189 officers and over 5,000 soldiers were shot. After the official surrender, 5,300 soldiers of the division fell into German captivity .

Against the Second Geneva Convention of 1929 and against the Hague Land Warfare Regulations, all remaining 280 officers were shot on September 24th . Seven of them were taken from the hospital . General Gandin was also shot. On the neighboring island of Corfu , where the 8,000-strong Italian garrison surrendered on September 25 after a one-day violent battle, 630 Italian soldiers fell. On September 26, all of the 280 officers who survived were shot in Corfu and their bodies were then sunk in the sea.

The evacuation claimed more serious victims. On September 28, the freighter Ardena , which was en route from Kefalonia to the mainland with 840 prisoners , sank south of Argostoli by an Allied air mine hit . 720 Italian prisoners died, including many survivors of the massacre. Another 1,000 to 1,300 prisoners of war died when two smaller ships went down in Allied mines near the island.

Legal processing

With regard to the mountain troops involved, several legal investigations were started, concluded and resumed after media reports, political events and ever new material references. In none of the previous proceedings in Germany were indictments brought against those involved.

A request from Simon Wiesenthal in 1964 to the Ludwigsburg Central Office for War Crimes , "whether the massacre on Kefalonia had already been the subject of criminal investigations in the Federal Republic", was the reason for an initial public prosecutor's investigation. After five years of research, the central office in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia for the processing of National Socialist mass crimes in Dortmund initially closed the "preliminary investigation ... for aiding and abetting murder" at the end of August 1969, since General Hubert Lanz was already in 1948 by the Nuremberg military tribunal ( case 7: Southeast Generals ) had been sentenced to twelve years in prison, among other things, for the shooting of the Acqui commander General Gandin and his staff officers. According to the code of criminal procedure, Lanz cannot be negotiated again. The attitude was also justified by the fact that the commanding regimental commander Major Harald von Hirschfeld had died in 1945 and no "living German Wehrmacht members could be identified" who were "responsible for the shooting ... or were involved in such ..." and the officers questioned ( "In the absence of evidence or because the manslaughter in question is statute-barred") would not be "considered as accused".

However, a Spiegel article in December 1969 generated greater public interest for the first time. The article named eyewitnesses, including living German armed forces.

It was not until 1987 that the investigations of the German judiciary became a public issue again through a monitor report. The moderator commented on the report with regard to the judiciary: “The German judiciary could have brought the Kefalonia murderers to justice if they had not started the investigative proceedings in some cases only twenty years after the end of the war and if they had persecuted the accused with greater consistency . So it can be assumed that some of the murderers from Kefalonia still live undisturbed among us and live on pensions that they have earned - just as undisturbed - as civil servants or soldiers in the German Armed Forces. "

In April 1992 peace activists from Pax Christi succeeded in submitting files against the Bundeswehr Lieutenant General Karl Wilhelm Thilo , which showed his involvement and the like. a. in the mass murder in "Kephallonia" should prove.

Investigations, especially in Italy, did not get underway again until November 1999, when old investigation files were discovered in the “ closet of shame ” in Italy, which motivated the Italy correspondent of the Süddeutsche Zeitung Christiane Kohl to carry out extensive research for years.

When the mass murder also became an issue between the state presidents of Italy and Germany, the Dortmund public prosecutor began to reopen the investigation in autumn 2001: Authority , research in military archives and reports in the Süddeutsche Zeitung . "(SZ, October 8, 2001)

In mid-May 2002 there were the first (and since then ongoing) protests against the annual mountain hunter meeting in Mittenwald . A working group that can be challenged to maintain tradition was founded, and in 2003 ARD broadcast a documentary by Hans Rüdiger Minow Murder on Kephallonia . The VVN-BdA thereupon published a documentation with a list of 71 mountain hunter comrades from the member lists of the comrades' association who were "urgently suspected of the crime" and demanded the continuation of the criminal investigation and the bringing of charges. Afterwards, numerous mountain hunters received summons from the Dortmund public prosecutor. But the apartment of a VVN-BdA editor was also searched.

In May 2004 the Frankfurter Rundschau reported : “The trial of the Kephalonia massacre is imminent ... A trial against veterans of the Wehrmacht mountain troops is approaching. After several years of investigations, Chief Public Prosecutor Ulrich Maaß considers the investigation against two alleged participants in the massacre on the Greek island of Kefalonia to be 'ready for conclusion' ”. However, in the summer of 2006 the preliminary proceedings were handed over to the responsible public prosecutor's office in Munich I and suspended by senior public prosecutor August Stern. Stern recognized "manslaughter" and the killing was not based on cruel intent. As in 1969, no murder was assumed, and the acts were barred . Nor were they “normal prisoners of war”, explains Chief Prosecutor Stern, because: “They turned from allies into fiercely fighting opponents and thus into“ traitors ”in the parlance of the military. The case is not significantly different from that if parts of the German troops deserted and joined the enemy. A subsequent execution would probably also not be regarded as a killing for low motives within the meaning of Section 211 of the Criminal Code . "

In November 2008, the Roman military prosecutor applied to the competent judge to open a trial for the massacre in Kefalonia. A German NCO, who was 23 years old at the time, is said to have participated in the shooting of officers and soldiers and is therefore charged.

In October 2013, a 90-year-old ex-sergeant who was involved in the murder of 117 Italian officers was sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia by a military court.

Commemoration

Memorial ceremony with veterans in the presence of the Italian President Giorgio Napolitano , 2007 in Kefalonia
The Via Privata Cefalonia in Milan

Numerous streets in Italy bear the names: Via Divisione Acqui, Via Martiri di Cefalonia, Viale degli Eroi di Cefalonia, Viale Eroi di Cefalonia, Via Caduti di Cefalonia or with general reference to the island: Corso Cefalonia, Via Cefalonia, Via Privata Cefalonia .

The novel Corelli's Mandolin by Louis de Bernières and the film adaptation based on it from 2001 are set against the backdrop of the events in Kefalonia during World War II.

Up to the present day, meetings of contemporary witnesses and commemorations take place at various levels. A small museum is carried out and financed by private initiative (next to the Catholic Church in Argostoli).

In 2002, the Italian Post issued a stamp in memory of the victims with the words Eccidio della Divisione Aqui .

See also

literature

Movies

Web links / articles

swell

  1. ^ Hermann Frank Meyer: Bloody Edelweiss: The 1st Mountain Division in World War II .
  2. ↑ "Everything that comes in front of the mouth is turned over" . one day , September 20, 2018; accessed on September 26, 2018.
  3. ↑ a b Rolf Surmann: On the trail of a war crime. In: concrete . July 2004
  4. ^ Institute for Contemporary History : Library: Post-War Processes x 116.1 .
  5. ↑ a b Wehrmacht war crimes: Harder than usual . In: Der Spiegel . No. 50 , 1969, p. 50-54 ( online ).
  6. ^ Franca Magnani, Wolfgang Landgräber & Eberhard Rondholz: War crimes of the German armed forces. In: Monitor . November 10, 1987
  7. ↑ Conny Neumann: "Particularly cruelly raged" - protest against an old warrior: Wehrmacht general should no longer speak on the day of national mourning. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . April 18, 1992
  8. ↑ From the closet of shame . In: the daily newspaper . June 22, 2005
  9. ↑ The Search for Truth: Closet of Shame ( Memento of the original from October 8, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.santannadistazzema.org archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . In: Portals di Sant'Anna di Stazzema
  10. ^ Christiane Kohl: Criminal hunt after 50 years of closed season - German war atrocities in Italy: After decades of consideration for NATO partner Germany, the judiciary in Turin and Rome is now investigating Wehrmacht soldiers and SS men. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . November 4, 1999
  11. ↑ Christiane Kohl: Unpunished massacre of the Wehrmacht - Investigations in the Kephallonia case: Dortmund public prosecutor's office has new findings. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . October 8, 2001
  12. ↑ Anke Schwarzer: Military tradition maintenance in Mittenwald . In: Telepolis . June 4, 2003
  13. ↑ Ulrich Sander: Wehrmacht: Vulnerable maintenance of tradition . In: New Germany . December 5, 2002
  14. ↑ Nora Paunsdorff: The lost honor of the researcher: Illegal research into journalistic work under criminal pretext . (PDF) In: M - People Make Media . No. 3, 2005, p. 26; see also VVN press review
  15. ↑ Joachim F. Tornau: Trial of the Kephalonia massacre is imminent. In: Frankfurter Rundschau . May 27, 2004 ( online ( memento of the original from April 10, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. On the VVN website / BdA NRW) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.nrw.vvn-bda.de
  16. ↑ Eberhard Rondholz : The unpunished mass murder. In: concrete . November 2006
  17. ^ Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . November 27, 2008, p. 5.
  18. ^ Massacre of officers - ex-Wehrmacht soldier convicted of war crimes . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung . October 18, 2013, accessed April 10, 2018.