At the “Alberto Silvestri” Conference Room of the University of Trento, a conference was held today entitled "Kefalonia. The trial, history, documents", which takes its name from the book-investigation of the prosecutor Marco De Paolis, head of the Military Prosecutor of the Republic of Rome and of Dr. Isabella Insolvibile, member of the Scientific Committee of the National Institute "Ferruccio Parri".
The cultural event, which saw the collaboration of the Army General Staff, was organized thanks to the fruitful synergy between the University of Trento, the Command of the Alpine Troops and the "Trentino Alto Adige" Regional Command of the Guardia di Finanza.
Present the highest local authorities, including the commissioner of the government Pasquale Gioffrè, the quaestor dott. Massimo D'ambrosio, the regional commander of the Guardia di Finanza, General Ivano Maccani, the heads of law enforcement, representatives of state institutions, the Italian Red Cross, Combat and Armament Associations, university students and representatives of military departments in Zone.
In the greeting addresses of the rector, prof. Paolo Collini and the director of the Trento Historical Museum Foundation (FMST) prof. Giuseppe Ferrandi, has underlined the cultural value of the deepening of a topic of great importance for the history of the country and the survey conducted by dr. De Paolis, based on a capillary research of the documents related to the military massacre of the "Acqui" division perpetrated by the Nazis on the Greek island.
At the beginning of the work the deputy commander of the Alpine Territory Troops took the floor, general of division Massimo Panizzi who, as moderator of the event, quoted some excerpts from the book "The Murder of Kefalonia" by Father Romualdo Formato , urging young people to rediscover their love for history, inviting them to visit the Museums, the Shrines and the places of memory, because "there can not be real progress without the memory of the past".
The professor. Lorenzo Gardumi (FMST) has treated, in his speech, the story of the "Trentino in the division Acqui before, during and after Kefalonia ". Dr. Insolvibile, technical consultant for the military prosecution for the investigations of the Nazi massacres, as well as the author of popular monographs of the sector, has then retraced the moments of the tragedy through an accurate historical analysis. "Kefalonia is the first real episode of armed resistance to Nazism", Stressed the researcher, emphasizing the fact that"the massacre of our soldiers represents the war crime committed by the Germans with the highest number of Italian victims".
The debate then came to life with the exposure of the author, the military prosecutor De Paolis, who defined the "18 2013 October 8 ruling by the Military Court of Rome as" historical ", with which the last extraordinary trial season ends. in Italy on the massacres of civilian population and military prisoners of war, committed by the Germans from 1943 September 1945 in May of XNUMX.
In stressing the difficulties, for historians and jurists, of reconstructing such an important and complex event and of "doing justice" in a matter such as that of war crimes, De Paolis explained how "the statement of criminal responsibility in cases such as that of Kefalonia appears not only dutiful, but also extremely useful as a deterrent for war criminals and as an ethical model for current and future soldiers".
The summary and the conclusions of the conference were entrusted to the historical wisdom of prof. Gustavo Corni who involved the university students and young soldiers in the hall, stimulating the active intervention in the session dedicated to the questions.
The event was enriched by the projection of movies and images related to the story of Kefalonia, in particular those relating to the return to the homeland of the fallen military corpses, and ended with a moment of recollection in their memory and with the notes of National anthem.
