Kos massacre

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The massacre of Kos was a war crime of the armed forces of Italian officers on the island of Kos in October 1,943th

history

The island of Kos was occupied by Italy from 1912 to 1943, which ended the 400-year rule of the Ottoman Empire over Kos and the very extensive self-government of the island. The Italian administration envisaged a long-term change to the existing structures on the islands of the eastern Aegean that belong to their territory (see: Italian Aegean Islands and Dodecanese ).

For a long time Kos was strategically unimportant and there was only a small military presence here. In the course of the Second World War , the island became important because a militarily suitable airfield was found there near Andimachia .

On September 3, 1943, the Armistice was signed by Cassibile and announced to the public on September 8, 1943, which surprised many people. After September 8, 1943, the few Germans present on the island were disarmed by Italian military personnel without any losses. The Wehrmacht did not only occupy northern and central Italy. They captured hundreds of thousands of Italian soldiers and killed thousands ( Axis case ). On September 10th and 14th, British troops landed on Kos (about 1500 men). From September 18th, the island was bombed several times by the German air force. On the morning of October 3, a heavy air raid took place in which German parachute troops landed. The British and Italians on the island were left without outside support. Most of them surrendered their weapons on the morning of October 4, 1943. The German troops of the 22nd Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht under the command of Lieutenant General Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller ( Dodecanese campaign (1943) ) captured over 3,000 Italian and around 1,400 British army personnel. Most of the prisoners were collected at the Neratzia fortress in the city ​​of Kos . In the days that followed, there were several small skirmishes and executions . Between October 5 and 7, 1943, several dozen Italian prisoners-of-war officers were brought in groups by the German Wehrmacht near Linopotis , secretly shot and buried in mass graves .

On October 13, 1943, under pressure from the Allies, Italy declared war on the German Reich.

The Italian jurisdiction and military rule on Kos ended with the occupation of the island of Kos by troops of Nazi Germany on October 3rd and 4th, 1943. On May 9th, 1945 British troops conquered the islands. The presence of the Italians as an occupying power in the administration ended with the occupation by the Allies . In 1947 Kos was formally handed over to Greece.

Course of the massacre

Memorial stone

Most of the captured Italian officers were held in a military barracks in Linopotis. Some are said to have been imprisoned near Kamari in the southwest of the island and some in the area of ​​the Lambi settlement and in the northeast of Kos town. The officers were asked about their involvement in the fighting against the German troops.

The illegal killings took place from October 5th to 7th. The officers who were brought to execution were apparently told that they would be transferred to the mainland. A few dozen officers were shot dead near Linopotis, between the village and the Alyki salt lake . Eight mass graves were found. Other Italian officers were shot and buried elsewhere on the island.

Some of the bodies were exhumed in 1945 and buried in the Catholic cemetery (Agnus Dei) in Kos. 62 of 66 bodies from mass graves could be identified in 1945. In 1954 the bodies were transported to Italy and buried in the Bari military cemetery (Sacrario Militare Caduti d'Oltre Mare a Bari).

Those responsible for the massacre in Kos and Italian collaborators were subsequently not punished. Only General Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller , who was responsible for many other war crimes , was indicted by Greece for war crimes on the island of Crete , sentenced to death and executed on May 20, 1947 by shooting .

The exact number of those murdered has not yet been established; it is believed that between 66 and 106 officers were murdered.

The memorial stone in the Catholic cemetery in Kos lists 103 names in alphabetical order.

literature

  • Aldo Levi: Avvenimenti in Egeo dopo l'armistizio (Rodi, Lero e isole minori) . Ufficio storico della Marina Militare, Rome 1972 (2nd edition 1993).
  • Isabella Insolvibile: Kos 1943–1948. La strage, la storia . Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, Naples 2010, ISBN 978-88-495-2082-8 .
  • Pietro Giovanni Liuzzi: Kos, una tragedia dimenticata. September 1943 - maggio 1945 . Aracne, Rome 2011.

See also

Web links

Footnotes

  1. ↑ It was z. B. also the style of the architecture adapted to the ideas of the new rulers and cleaned of "oriental influences" and based on the Roman Empire in connection with fascist "ideals" executed Italian Architects and Scholars in the Levant. The case of Rhodes and the Dodecanese Islands under the Italian Fascist Rule , p. 94.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f Kos Island, the massacre of Italian officers (1943) , June 30, 2016.
  3. ↑ Chris Dunning, Solo coraggio !, Parma, 2000, Delta Editrice, p. 121.
  4. ↑ Isabella Insolvibile, Kos 1943-1948. La strage, la storia , Naples 2010, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, ISBN 978-88-495-2082-8 , p. 39 ff.
  5. ↑ Peter Tompkins: Mussolini's fall and Italy's change of front in 1943 Der Spiegel 14/1967.
  6. ↑ a b c The Invasion of Kos: The Killing of 103 Royal Italian Army Officers , website: warhistoryonline.com.
  7. ↑ Kos Island, The Massacre of Italian Officers (1943) , June 30, 2016.
  8. ↑ History of the island of Kos ( Archived copy ( memento of the original from July 25, 2009 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 note. , Greek) . @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kosisland.org
  9. ^ A b Aldo Levi, Avvenimenti in Egeo dopo l'armistizio (Rodi, Lero e isole minori) , Rome 1993, Ufficio storico della Marina Militare, pp. 357, 497.
  10. ↑ a b Army 1914 - 1945 .
  11. ↑ Kos Island, The Massacre of Italian Officers (1943) , June 30, 2016.
  12. ↑ Egeo 1943-1945, gli anni dell'occupazione germanica ( Memento of the original from April 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Dodecaneso homepage. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.dodecaneso.org
  13. ↑ Isabella Insolvibile, Kos 1943-1948. La strage, la storia , Naples 2010, Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, ISBN 978-88-495-2082-8 , pp. 257 ff.
  14. ↑ A Kos commemorazione eccidio militari italiani , website: ansamed.info.
  15. ↑ Kos, 70 years ago 'forgotten' slaughter of Italian officers , website: lagazzettadelmezzogiorno.it.
  16. ↑ Kos, 70 years ago 'forgotten' slaughter of Italian officers , website: ansamed.info.
  17. ↑ Konstantinos Kogiopoulos: OS - EGEO OTTOBRE 1943. L'ECCIDIO DEGLI ITALIANI Ufficiali .
  18. ↑ ΒΡΕΘΗΚΕ ΣΤΗΝ ΑΛΥΚΗ Ο ΤΑΦΟΣ 34 ΙΤΑΛΩΝ ΑΞΙΩΜΑΤΙΚΩΝ ΠΟΥ ΕΚΤΕΛΕΣΑΝ ΟΙ ΓΕΡΜΑΝΟΙ , October 29, 2012.
  19. ↑ Pietro Giovanni Liuzzi: Kos, una tragedia dimenticata ( Memento of the original from July 21, 2012 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. , accessed November 1, 2014. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.paginedidifesa.it