Kalavryta Memorial

Mnimeio Thissias Kalavryton

In one of the largest massacres of civilians conducted by soldiers of the German Wehrmacht during World War II, almost all of the male residents of Kalavryta were shot in an alleged »retaliation operation« on December 13, 1943. A memorial at the site of the mass shooting, located on a hill overlooking the town, honours the victims.

History

Kalavryta is a small town in the mountains in the northern part of the Peloponnese. The region came under Italian occupation in May 1941. In April 1943, the 117th Jäger Division of the Wehrmacht came to support the Italian troops after partisan activities had increased in the area. This unit had previously been stationed in Serbia as the 717th Infantry Division, where it had committed numerous murders of civilians, including the killings at Kraljevo in October 1941.
Since autumn 1943, in reaction to the intensified resistance efforts the Wehrmacht had threatened to kill 50 Greek hostages for every killed soldier. In October 1943, partisans took about eighty Wehrmacht soldiers from Infantry Division 749 hostage and demanded the release of 50 Greek hostages in exchange for every captured soldier. At the end of November, the commander of the 117th Jäger Division, Major-General Karl von Le Suire, ordered a military operation codenamed »Operation Kalavryta« to free the soldiers and carry out »retaliation measures« against the civilian population. On December 7, when the German troops were approaching, the partisans shot all of their hostages in the village of Maseika. The Wehrmacht, however, was falsely convinced that Kalavryta was a centre of the partisan movement. On the early morning of December 13, 1943, officers and soldiers of the 117th Jäger Division ordered all of the residents of Kalavryta to gather on the main square. Women, children and elderly people were locked in the school building, while all men above the age of 15 were led to a nearby hilltop. The town was looted and for the most part destroyed. In the afternoon, the soldiers machine-gunned the men on the hill. About 13 men survived the mass murder severely injured. The people who had been locked in the school managed to escape the burning building.
During this period, Wehrmacht units burned down 28 townships and monasteries in the region.

Kalavryta, undated, Male residents of Kalavryta, Demotiko Mouseio Kalavritinou Olokaytomatos

Kalavryta, undated, Mourning woman at a grave, Demotiko Mouseio Kalavritinou Olokaytomatos

Victims

477 male residents of Kalavryta fell victim to the massacre carried out by the 117th Jäger Division on December 13, 1943. Among them were boys under the ages of 15. In all, over 2,300 people who had been taken hostage were hanged or shot in the Peloponnese region by German units as part of »retaliation measures« undertaken prior to their retreat in October 1944.

The Wehrmacht invaded the Kingdom of Greece in April 1941. The country was divided up between the Third Reich and its Axis allies Italy and Bulgaria. The occupying powers exploited Greece’s agricultural resources as well as the country’s limited industrial capacity. This resulted in a famine in the winter of 1941-42, which probably claimed the lives of over 100,000 Greeks. Jewish life in occupied Greece was dominated by expropriation, public abuse, arrests, murder and forced labour. Between March 15 and mid-August 1943, around 46,000 Jews were deported in 19 transports from Thessaloniki to the Auschwitz-Birkenau and Treblinka extermination camps. These transports were organised by an SS special commando with the support of the local military administration. At the beginning of March 1943, the Bulgarian occupation authorities in the Greek province of Thrace had already arrested over 4,000 Jews, who were subsequently deported to Treblinka by the SS. Following the capitulation of Italy in autumn 1943, the Wehrmacht advanced to the Italian-occupied part of Greece. In March 1944, the SS and locals deported over 8,500 Jews from Athens, Ionnina and Rhodes to Auschwitz-Birkenau. Italy had previously refused to deport these Jews. Around 59,000 Greek Jews were murdered in the Holocaust. The German occupation regime met with growing Greek resistance. The Wehrmacht responded in 1943-44 with numerous brutal attacks, reprisals and mass shootings. Entire villages were destroyed, for example the villages of Kalavrita and Distimo. Over 100,000 Greek civilians are believed to have died in the process. The period from 1944, whilst Greece was still occupied by Germany, saw conflict between right-wing royalists and left-wing communist groups in the country. These conflicts escalated into a civil war from 1946-49. The royalists won this war with the support of Great Britain and the USA and adopted a strict anti-communist approach. Faced with a likely left-wing election victory in 1967, the military staged a putsch, seized power, and governed the country for the next seven years. The left-wing’s role in the resistance during the Second World War was only acknowledged following Greek accession to the European Economic Community in 1981. With the fall of communism in 1990-91 the divisions in Greek memory were finally overcome, allowing a confrontation with the 1946-49 civil war. To a large extent, the Greek culture of memory continues to be dominated by remembrance of the resistance against the Germans. Memorial inscriptions often use the term »Holocaust« to refer to the murder of the civilian population, for example the »Holocaust of Kalavrita«. For a long time it was left to the Jewish community to remember the 85 percent of Greek Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust. Until 1997, the country’s only Holocaust memorial was to be found in the Jewish cemetery in Thessaloniki, the town with the largest Jewish community in Greece before the war. A Holocaust memorial was inaugurated in the centre of Saloniki in 1997 in conjunction with the ceremonies marking the town’s status as European City of Culture that year. In 2005, the memorial was moved to another site in the city. In 2010, a new holocaust memorial was inaugurated in Athens as well. Currently, a major holocaust museum is under construction in Thessaloniki, to which Germany contributes a sum of 10 million euros.

Remembrance

Most of Kalavryta was burned down on December 13, 1943. Traces of damage were visible even decades later.
In 1967, the »Topos Thysias« memorial (English: Site of the Victims) was erected. It is located on the site of the mass shootings, overlooking the town. This is one of the most important memorial sites in Greece due to the fact that Kalavryta is considered a symbol for Greek resistance since the days of the Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman Empire. The nearby monastery of Agia Lavra - which was also destroyed by the 117th Jäger Division in December 1943 - was where the Greek revolution began on March 25, 1821.
Four large marble plaques bearing the names of the murdered men stand next to numerous graves. A large cross stands close to the memorial complex and is visible in the distance. Every year on 13 December, a commemorative ceremony - which plays an important part in town life - is held. Since 2005, the school building in which women, children and elderly people were locked on December 13, 1943, has been home to a museum: »Museum of the Kalavryta Holocaust«. The central church also commemorates the massacre as its clock always shows 2:34 p.m., the time at which the massacre began. Until today, the bereaved families have not received reparations from Germany.

Kalavryta, 2004, Cross at the site of the mass shooting, Alexios Menexiadis

Kalavryta, 2004, Wall with the names of those shot dead, Alexios Menexiadis

Open

The memorial complex is accessible at all times.
The museum is opened Tuesday to Sunday 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Contact

https://www.dmko.gr/

info@dmko.gr

+30 (0)26920 23646

Kalavryta, 2004, The former school, today the »Museum of the Kalavryta Holocaust«, Alexios Menexiadis

Kalavryta, 2004, View of the memorial complex »Topos Thysias«, Alexios Menexiadis

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