Massacre of Kalavryta
The Massacre of Kalavryta, refers to the near-extermination of the male population and the total destruction of the town of Kalavryta,Greece, by the 117th Jäger Division during World War II, on 13 December 1943.
The first photo depicts the sculpture with the names of the executed.
Second photo : ''On December 13, 1943, at 12:00 pm, at this place, the entire male population of the Kalavryta fell dead by the German troops as an act of revenge.''
''No more Wars - Peace''
“Operation Kalavryta”, or “Unternehmen Kalavryta”, was a typical German act of retaliation in areas where there was heavy guerrilla activity. It was directed against the civilian population of the region and was one of the most barbarous carried out by the Wermacht, not only in Greece, but in Europe.
The Kalavryta and Aegialian regions had developed strong resistance forces from the beginning of 1943. The German army began to worry about the growing revolutionary activities, and wanted to destroy them with an operation which included bombing, burning and executions.
On the early morning of December 13th, 1943, the people of Kalavryta, woke up to the sounds of ringing church bells. The omens were bad. Within hours, at 9.00am, the first German soldiers of the 117th Jägerdivision appeared in the town’s main road. The orders were definite: Everyone should assemble to the local school. Half an hour later all women and children were locked in the schoolhouse while all men, between 12 and 80 years of age, were lined up and driven to a nearby hillside. The infamous “Unternehmen Kalavryta” had just begun. In less than three hours the heroic town would be burned to ashes and only 13 of its inhabitants would survive to keep the memory of their beloved ones alive, along with the shocking testimonies describing the Nazis’ atrocities.
While women and children were locked in the school and men were marching towards the hill by the town, Nazi soldiers were burning houses, churches and public buildings, looting and loading the spoils on trucks. The men who could see their own houses being burned down were ordered to dig their own graves. A few minutes later the signal for the mass execution was finally given, by throwing a flare in the air, and the machine guns,which were hidden in the adjacent hills, began firing. At midday one of the most hideous atrocities Europe has seen in the 20th century was complete. Women and children managed to free themselves from the flaming school only to witness that the rest of the town was set ablaze and their fathers, brothers and sons were butchered.
The indisputable witness of the tragedy remains the watch of the Metropolis of Kalavryta, halted at 2:34 'that day of total fire and inhumane slaughter ...
