8,000 Italian Prisoners of War Murdered by Nazis: The Cephalonia Massacre
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September 1943. After Italy surrendered to the Allies, thousands of Italian soldiers on the Greek island of Cephalonia found themselves abandoned and surrounded by their former German allies. Believing they would be treated as prisoners of war after surrendering, they instead became victims of one of the largest massacres of Allied soldiers committed by the Nazis during World War II.
Discover the story of the Cephalonia Massacre—the desperate stand of the Italian Acqui Division, General Antonio Gandin's fateful decision to resist, the brutal executions carried out by the German 1st Mountain Division, and the fate of the officers and soldiers murdered after laying down their arms. It also follows the perpetrators, including Harald von Hirschfeld and Josef Kübler, and examines how many ultimately paid for their crimes.
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