Distomo, 1944

On this day, June 10, 1944, the Germans committed one of the greatest atrocities in their entire history.
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After yet another failure on their part (the Hellenic Police set up an ambush and crushed them)
To justify their disaster, they said that the villagers of Distomo were to blame
and
They returned to the village with orders to leave nothing standing
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and he didn't stay
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like rabid dogs, they break into homes
and they kill, slaughter, rape,
whoever they find…
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Result?;
228 dead (117 women and 111 men),
Among them were 53 children under the age of 16
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Women and young girls were gang-raped before being executed, while pregnant women were disemboweled.
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The village priest, Sotirios Zisis, was beheaded after first being forced to watch the massacre of his family members.
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Since they didn't leave ANYONE alive,
post,
They set fire to and burned down all the houses in the village,
after first stealing all the animals and anything else of value they could find and loading them onto trucks.
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A few months after this unbelievable crime committed by the Nazis,
in November 1944,
Dmitri Kessel,
correspondent for the American magazine *Life*,
He visited Distomo and came across a young woman dressed in black,
who was standing in front of a basin, washing her black clothes.
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It was Maria Pantiska.
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The pain was etched on the woman's face,
who was crying and standing in front of the photographer's lens with her arms crossed.
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A few months earlier, she had lost her mother, who had been executed by the Germans.
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The journalist continued to walk around the village, taking photos and talking to anyone he met…
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On November 29, 1944, the photographs and news report from Distomo,
were first published in *Life* magazine under the title:
«What Did the Germans Do in Greece?».
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In the caption of the photo showing the young woman dressed in black
wrote:
«Maria Pantiska is still weeping uncontrollably, two months after the Germans killed her mother in a massacre in the Greek town of Distomo.».
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After 37 full years,
in 1981,
in California, U.S., a Greek student from Distomo,
Dimitris Pitsos,
He was in the library at the University of Berkeley,
when he happened to come across photocopies of the issue featuring Distomo:
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«My hair stood on end as soon as I saw the photo of my grandmother,
my father's mother,
by Katina Pitsou,
»and below that, the story of Matthaios Dimakas, my grandfather's brother and my mother's father…"
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After a search, the regular issue was found at a used bookstore in San Francisco.
They bought it and sent it to the Municipality of Distomo.
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That was when the story of the photograph and Maria Pantiska became known.
Since then, Maria Pantiska has been described as
as:
“The Woman—a Global Symbol of the Distomo Massacre”
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Further down, *Life* wrote:
While out on the street, the photographer Kessel met a pale man named Matthaios Dimakas.
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He knew English, and the photographer mistook him for a translator...
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As they walked and chatted, Dimakas said to him:
«I am an American citizen.
I came here (from the U.S.) in 1934 to visit my mother.
Then I got married.
I wanted to go back to the United States and take my mother and my wife with me.
Now I don't have anyone to take with me.
The Germans came like rabid dogs.
My wife was begging them, "Please don't take everything from me.".
The Germans shot her.
Our baby was crying.
So the Germans shot him in the head.
»The baby was eight months old."
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P.S. The enemy criminal, the Nazis’ direct commanding officer in Distomo,
Hans Chabel,
He was arrested by the French, and in 1949 he was extradited to Greece.
In 1953, following reports in the German press that described Hans Chabel,
«the last German prisoner of war in Greece,»,
The West German government pressured the Greek government,
Hans Chabel should be sent to Germany
and don't worry, we'll put him on trial ourselves…
The collaborators who were in power at the time gave in and handed him over…
As soon as the war criminal arrived in Germany, he was acquitted in a summary trial
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P.S. 2. In the national elections in September 2015,
in the Municipality of Distomo–Arachova,
Golden Dawn took
262 votes
5.60% percentage
(They even surpassed the 228 deaths at Distomo)
A PEOPLE WHO DO NOT KNOW THEIR HISTORY
HE IS DOOMED TO RELIVE IT…