Italy seek justice for 'Captain Correlli' massacre

In a case of life firmly rejecting art, the German officer depicted sympathetically in Louis de Bernières's bestselling novel, Captain Correlli's Mandolin is facing extradition for the 1943 massacre of Italian soldiers.

Italian authorities have decided that 88-year-old Otmar Muhlhauser should answer to murder charges in an Italian court. Mr Muhlhauser was the junior officer commanding the firing squad who shot General Gandin, the head of the Italian acqui division stationed on the Greek island of Cephalonia in 1943.

The division voted to fight the Germans after Italy switched allegiance to the Allied forces following Mussolini’s resignation.

The Italians surrendered after a week of fighting. Violating the terms of the surrender, German troops opened fire upon them. In 2001 the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported that 9,436 Italians out of the 11,700 soldiers based on the island had been shot dead.

The details of the atrocity came to light following the publication of the diary of Corporal Alfred Richter of the German Alpine Regiment. An extract from the diary reads: “In groups they are taken into nearby quarries and walled gardens just outside the village and mown down by machine guns.”

Mr Muhlhauser has previously been investigated by a German court in 1967 and 2001. Both hearings found that he was just in his actions as the Italians were considered traitors.

Mr Muhlhauser who currently lives near Munich, said in 2004: “The Italian division was only spoken of by (German) officers as traitors. To betrayal there was only one reply: execution.”

This will not be the first time that an Italian court has had the opportunity to trial individuals involved in the Cephalonia massacre. In the 1950s, 30 soldiers were accused of taking part in the massacre; they were acquitted of all charges by Italian ministers who did not then wish to cause frictions with the German government.