After 75 years from the massacre, solemn military honors will be made for the first time to 103 officers of the 10 "Regina" infantry regiment killed by the Germans in October of the 1943.
The ceremony will take place tomorrow in Kos / Coo, at the Catholic cemetery of the island in the presence of the crew of Nave Palinuro, the schooner of our Navy passing through the usual training cruise.
In front of the monumental plaque that bears the names of the Fallen, the bronze memorial bell and the urn with the remains of the officers found during the excavation campaign conducted in the 2015 by a group of Italian and Greek volunteers, it will be accomplished, after decades of oblivion, a further, significant step towards the rapprochement of the families of the fallen to the institutions of the Republic.
The officers of the "Regina" were cowardly killed in the days following the armistice by a German machine gun hidden among the bushes, while in small groups they were accompanied to the nearby Tingaki boarding point, to be transferred - so they had been led to believe - in the prison camps in Germany.
The bodies were buried in mass graves, from 8 of which, one year later, 66 were exhumed of which only 42 recognized, whose remains now rest in the Overseas Ossuary of Bari.
It is due to a letter to Corriere della Sera in the 2005 if the massacre of the officers at Kos was brought to the fore. In it, an Italian lady expressed disappointment, her and many islanders, because nothing had been done to search for the other 37 bodies and never a Republic Authority had made the honors in place.
Since then, out of debt of honor, a colonel of the Army reserve, Pietro Giovanni Liuzzi, has dedicated all his time to restore the massacre of the Italian officers to the common memory, thanks also to the work of a "Kos ", Founded by him, which was received on 25 April 2014 by the President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, who centered his speech for the celebration of the Liberation of Italy precisely on the massacre committed on the Greek island.
In 2015, with the support of the Municipality of Kos, the contribution of the Embassy in Athens and the economic participation of some benefactors, Liuzzi launched the "Operation Lisia": an excavation campaign that in just one week (the only one granted available) allowed the discovery of a further pit in the same field. A meticulous search - then described in the book of the same name written the following year for the Youcanprint Editions - during which they emerged in addition to personal items of the military (a medal in gold, a pair of glasses, a gold denture, a Bakelite fountain pen and more), clothing items (buttons, stars) and 21 gun cartridge cases believed to be for the coup de grace.
The few human bones found were later found to belong to two 26-year-olds. The remains are now found in Kos, in the Catholic Cemetery, in a marble urn built in Locorotondo (BA) thanks to the funding of some benefactors.
The commemoration of the 31 July will represent an act due to those who sacrificed their lives to keep faith with the oath to the Fatherland.
On the same day at the 18.30, Colonel Liuzzi, at the invitation of the commander of Nave Palinuro, will board and explain the tragic events of October 1943 to the authorities and the crew.
The schooner will remain at its moorings until 2 August, to then resume navigation and thus continue the training of the non-commissioned officers at sea.
"With the favor of the winds" is its motto and "Vento etesio" the name of the Facebook page of the Kos Fallen Committee: for one day united - Armed Forces and Committee - in the common commitment to spread, just like the winds do, the seeds of Memory.
(photo: Marina Militare / web)
