After the Italians surrendered in September 1943, the Germans realized that they would have to finish the job themselves...
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so they became more barbaric and ruthless than ever before
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in a coastal village in Corinthia, Perigiali, at that time,
was the headquarters of the 117th German Parachute Division, under General Karl von Le Suir.
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Meanwhile,
the guerrilla warfare in the Peloponnese, instead of declining, was growing stronger.
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the Germans couldn't imagine it
that the «Xypolides»,
as they contemptuously call the ragged ELAS fighters,
Instead of decreasing, despite the hardships, they continued to multiply.
writes ELAS Major Vazaios:
«In the winter of 1943-1944, the 50% guerrillas were completely barefoot,
Most of them wore summer uniforms without cloaks.
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So 100 Germans leave Perigiali to clear the passes connecting Patras with Tripoli.
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only instead of cleaning up the «barefoot vagrants,» they clean themselves up...
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Hitler's “invincible” army is crushed by barefoot and starving guerrillas,
who brought 60-year-old weapons, such as grenades, which fired old but deadly bullets.
The armament was supplemented by weapons from the heroic era, which they had inherited from their grandfathers, or even sabers or swords from the old Ottoman cavalry!
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And yet, with this weaponry and this equipment, they defeat the Germans, who suffer heavy losses.
20 dead and 77 captured...
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negotiations begin for the rebels to release the Germans and, in return,
the Germans should also let some Greeks go free
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The Germans are stalling in the negotiations because they have taken excerpts and are searching for prisoners with the rebels.
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The ELAS officers understand this and demand an immediate response.
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The Germans launch an operation in Mazika, but find neither rebels nor prisoners.
But since they went to Mazei, they decided to kill some local farmers for fun.
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The ELAS fighters become enraged and execute the German prisoners.
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and then the Germans launch an attack on the entire mountain range of Kalavryta.
is the famous «Operation Kalavryta» (Unternehmen Kalavryta)
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From whichever village the German divisions pass through, they spread fire and death until they reach their destination.
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burn the villages
Rogers,
Kerpine,
Upper and Lower Zachlorou,
as well as at the Monastery of Megalo Spilaio, and they execute a total of 150 villagers...
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it's just the appetizer,
The main part of the journey will come when they reach Kalavryta.
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as today,
Monday, December 13, 1943, the beasts enter Kalavryta
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They make cunning promises that they are only looking for rebels and that the residents have no reason to fear.
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some who were initially persuaded by the Hellenic Police to flee to the mountains,
They put their faith in the Germans' promises and RETURN...
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Then, on his orders, the German commander gathers the entire population in the central square.
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There, they separate all men aged 13 and above,
and led them to a cliff called
«Rachi tou Kapis» (Back of Kapis),
while women and children under the age of 13 were locked in the school.
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At the same time, other units of German soldiers and Greek security battalions,
they begin to loot and destroy the houses in the village...
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At noon, at 2:34 p.m.
(the clock of the town church remains stopped to this day),
A flare dropped from the city gave the signal.
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The thirty-five German soldiers who operated the mortars and machine guns,
they begin to slaughter the men they had taken prisoner at «Rachi tou Kapí,»,
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The killers finish their work with mercy shots....
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at the same time,
the criminals who had been left behind
and they stole and then burned the houses in the village,
after they finished this job,
They also set fire to the school where they had locked up women and infants...
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Scenes of insanity follow.
women break school windows and throw children out.
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Finally, they open the door and start running.
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the Germans together with local traitors from the security battalions
they did not stop at this crime
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They thought that those who had escaped and scattered in the mountains,
they should be exterminated by cold and hunger
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So they began to methodically burn down every space, house, or barn within a large radius.
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steal anything that might be useful
and destroy anything that could prolong life in the world during winter.
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A total of approximately 1,000 houses are burned down.
They steal over 2,000 goats and sheep and 260 million drachmas.
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the death toll will exceed 1,000 in the wider region...
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It is one of the greatest crimes of World War II in its entirety.
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P.S. 1,800 Greek traitors participated in the massacre of Kalavryta.
came from the security battalions
from Laconia,
the region of Ilia
and Corinth,
while groups of guards were also transferred from Thebes and Megara.
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PS2. WHEN WERE THE COLLABORATORS, THE TAGMATASFALITES, THE GERMANS' ACCOMPLICES, EVER BROUGHT TO JUSTICE?,
those who participated in the crimes of Kalavryta
ON THE CONTRARY,
Many of them joined the state apparatus after the war...
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PS3. Read the images.
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Akambhuber (head of the executive detachment) died in Austria in 1972.
Two soldiers searched the Pantheon Hotel once again.
There they witnessed a birth.
The husband of the expectant mother, 40-year-old Vasilis Anastasopoulos, who had hidden in the attic, was arrested by the Germans just as he was about to help his wife give birth...
they arrested him and took him away...
Two soldiers dragged 35-year-old Georgios Georgantas by his feet, pulling him out of the pile of dead bodies.
“They dragged me four or five meters away.”
remembers.
“They gave me the coup de grâce.
The bullet pierced my cheek and cut off half my tongue.
For two years, I couldn't eat or drink normally.
I drank water like a dog.”.
He was released early, in January 1951, and died in West Germany at the end of 1965 at the age of 80 from old age...
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General Le Suir died in Soviet captivity in 1954.
