After the capitulation of the Italians in September 1943, the Germans realized that they had 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 of Corinthia, Perigiali, at that time the 117th German Commando Division, under General Karl von Le Suir
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the guerrilla war in the Peloponnese instead of diminishing, was becoming more and more intense.
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the Germans couldn't imagine it
that the Ragheads,
as they contemptuously call the ragged ELASites, instead of diminishing and despite the hardships they were becoming more and more numerous.
writes Major Vazaios:
«and during the whole winter of 1943-1944 the 50% of the guerrillas were completely barefoot, and most of them wore summer uniforms without choline’.
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100 Germans leave Perigiali to clean the passages that connect Patras with Tripoli.
only instead of cleaning up the «insubordinate bums», they're being cleaned up...
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Hitler's invincible army is crushed by barefoot and hungry 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 outfit, they defeat the Germans who have heavy losses. 20 dead and 77 prisoners...
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negotiations begin for the guerrillas to let the Germans go free
and respectively
the Germans should also let some Greeks go free
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the Germans are stalling in the negotiations while they have taken out parallel detachments and are searching for prisoners with the rebels.
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the ELASites realize this and demand an immediate response
the Germans launch an operation in Mazzeiqa, but find neither guerrillas nor prisoners.
but since they're here, they decided to kill some local farmers just for the sake of the chef.
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the ELASites are outraged 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 and until they reach their destination they spread fire and death
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burn the villages
Rogers,
Kerpine,
Upper and Lower Zachlorou,
as well as the Great Cave Monastery and perform no 150s of locals in total...
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is only the horde
the main harvest of the chariot will come when they reach Kalavryta
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on 13 December 1943, Monday, the beasts enter Kalavryta
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make sly promises that they are only looking for rebels and the inhabitants have no reason to fear
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some who were initially persuaded by ELAS to flee to the mountains, finally believe the promises of the Germans and RETURN back...
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then by order of the German commander, he gathers the entire population in the central square.
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there they separate all men from 13 years old and up,
and led them to a sloping site called
«Ridge of the Cape»
while women and children under the age of 13 were locked in the school.
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At the same time, other detachments of German soldiers and Greek battalion soldiers start looting and destroying the houses of 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.
The thirty-five German soldiers wielding the shotguns and machine guns begin to mow down the prisoners.
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The killers finish their work with mercy shots....
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at the same time they set fire to the houses in the village, but that's not enough.
the killers also set fire to the school where the women and children had been trapped.
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Scenes of insanity follow.
women break school windows and throw children out.
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eventually they break down the door and start running.
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and yet the beasts have not reached this death sentence
whoever had escaped the bullets and fire had to die of cold and hunger.
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so they start to burn methodically over a wide radius whatever space, house or stable there was.
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.
steal over 2,000 sheep and goats and 260 million drachmas.
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the death toll will exceed 1,000 in the wider region...
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what inhumanity...!!!!!
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is one of the greatest criminals of the Second World War in its entire spectrum.
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PS. 1800 traitors participated in the Kalavryta massacre.
came from the security battalions
from Laconia,
Ilia and Corinth,
while groups of guards were also transferred from Thebes and Megara.
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PS2. read the pictures
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...
The infant was later christened taking the name of her father, Vasiliki.
“I never celebrated my birthday”, his daughter said in an interview half a century later, “I never celebrated it”...
“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 liberated prematurely 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 Jouir died as a prisoner of the Soviets in 1954.
