Cephalonia, Greece
A German prosecutor said this week he would bring murder charges against former Wehrmacht soldiers who massacred Italian prisoners in 1943. More than 5,000 Italians on the Greek island of Cephalonia were murdered by the Germans after Italy withdrew from the war, an atrocity that is featured in the novel Captain Corelli’s Mandolin. The first German investigation into the massacre was shelved in 1968; it was later revealed that the prosecutor’s boss was a former Nazi storm trooper. The case gathered dust until two years ago, when diaries kept by two German witnesses were published. That prompted German prosecutor Ulrich Maass to reopen the files. Now, he said, he has amassed enough evidence to bring charges against 10 former soldiers.
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