The tragedy of Western Macedonia during the period of occupation has no equal. All the enemies of Hellenism appear there during the period of slavery, operating with all their dark organizations. The period 1941-44 appears similar to that of the Macedonian Struggle. Germans, Italians, Bulgarians, Albanians, Romanians systematically competed to destroy Hellenism, to alter its ethnological character.
The most loyal allies of the Bulgarians were the Italians who sought to weaken the morale and national spirit of the Greeks. The Italians, immediately after the occupation of Greece, adopted the opinion that Kastoria was called "Kastrop" and was inhabited exclusively by Albanians.
Thus for the Italians the prefecture of Kastoria had to be annexed to Albania. That is why they gathered, with the compensation, individuals of the underworld who signed memorandums to Mussolini asking "great" Italy to annex Kastoria. At the same time, the Italians strengthened in every way the Romanians of the "prince of Pindos" Alcibiades Diamantis, who dreamed of establishing a Wallachian state in Greek territory.
The soul of the Italian effort to crush Hellenism in western Macedonia was the Italian lieutenant Giovanni Ravalli. Ravalli was born in 1910 in Sicily. He came to Kastoria after its occupation and took it upon himself to suffocate, literally, everything Greek, together with his deputy leader, Grandenikos. His partner was also lieutenant of the Carabinieri Jonah.
Ravalli served in the 13th Regiment of the "Pinerolo" Division. The Italian guards who served in Kastoria were Colonel Ferrera, who had a Greek wife, Colonel Zudice and Colonel Venieri. Of these, the second was a fanatical fascist and fiercely persecuted the Greeks. Venieri was an old man with a special love for drink and women.
However, the mastermind behind the persecution of the Greeks was always Ravali, who also worked closely with the Bulgarian Kaltsev. Ravali gathered around him Albanians, Romanians and Bulgarians or local agents of non-Greek national consciousness and used them against the Greeks.
Ravali's main agents were mainly Greek nationals of Bulgarian, (or "Macedonian") national consciousness. Ravali's group is responsible for torturing, murdering, looting Greeks. In addition to the aforementioned purges, the Italian also participated in the torture, who particularly persecuted Greek gendarmes, judges and every local authority.
The goal of the Italians was the annexation of the prefectures of Kastoria, Arta and Thesprotia to Albania. Ravali found willing "Greeks" to write and sign a memorandum to Mussolini asking for the annexation of Albania. The memorandum in question the gangs of Ravalli circulated the memorandum to be signed by the residents.
However, the project was stopped by the Germans, after pressure from the occupying government of Athens. After this Ravalli organized the infamous "investigation battalions", which included at least 200 comitadists. The battalions arrested, tortured, imprisoned and killed dozens of Greeks. All the Greeks who were by nature or by nature the leaders of the local societies were fiercely hunted down - scientists, priests, Gendarmerie officers, soldiers... but even small students.
A special concentration camp was even established in Larissa. In the trial of Ravali and Kaltsev, the prosecutor said in his speech:"In the prison, the prisoners were beaten inhumanely. The office of the director of Kastoria prisons and the basements of the "Carabinieria" were torture centers. The prisoners were forced to lie on tables or desks and beaten with sticks. The wood broke on the heads and feet of the prisoners. The walls were red with blood and the screams reached the sky. The lieutenant Giannakouros was mercilessly punished because he did not greet an Italian carabinieri, the lieutenant and others with him because they were listening to the London radio station... At night they could not even leave a ward, where they were piled like animals, because of their need".
The torturers often cut the prisoners with knives and poured hot oil and salt into the wounds. When the gangs arrived in a Greek village they announced their arrival with grenades. Then they called all the men to gather at the school and beat them to testify that they had hidden weapons. They pulled out the beards and hair of the priests.
The "suspects" were tied by the hands behind their backs and hung so that they were dangling. The pains were unbearable and soon the limbs were dislocated. In one case they beat "suspects" with the stocks of guns for four days. They still removed women's hair one by one, while in one case they placed a pump in their victim's anus to force a priest to masturbate in public...
Italian officers who "distinguished themselves" in torture were Lieutenant Milanite, the rapist Captain Prima, Grandenico who twisted his victim's navel with pliers, Alnadonna who enjoyed setting fire to Greek houses himself, Spataro who killed, in one case completely innocent people Greek shepherds. In the village of Agios Dimitrios, after Stavros Germanos fainted from the blows, they gave him urine to drink. The Bulgarians of the investigation battalions approached many Greeks and asked them to "declare themselves Bulgarians in order to escape".
The case of Stavros Sinanoglou is worth mentioning , who participated in the resistance and was arrested after treason. Sinanoglou was literally martyred. First he was tied behind a horse and forced to gallop. Covered in blood, they continued to torture him for nine days and nights, until they executed him after he refused to betray his fellow warriors.
Before he died he left the following message to his parents:“My dear parents, when you receive this letter from me, I will no longer be alive. You will not cry for me. I don't want tears and mourning. You know, because I always told you, that I will not die sick in bed, but I will die standing, fighting, and from gunpowder. And so it will be in a few hours. Don't be upset at all. On the contrary, you should be proud of me, who sacrifices myself in the fight for the country and freedom".
He begged them to wrap his body in Blue and White before giving him a proper burial and died shouting to the passage "Long live Greece". Ravali and Kalchev faced Greek justice. Their trial lasted 4 months. The second got what he deserved, before the execution squad. But Ravalli was sentenced three times to life imprisonment and imprisoned.
But he was released in 1959, following pressure from the Italian government in Greece, despite the strong protests of the residents of the prefecture of Kastoria and the hundreds of letters they sent to the then King Paul and the Prime Minister Konstantinos Karamanlis. Ravalli returned to Italy where he became police director in Palermo, Sicily and was later appointed advisor to the Italian government. He died in Rome in 1998, full days old...