| Massacre of Kondomari | |
|---|---|
 Cretan Greek civilians confronting GermanFallschirmjägerparatroopers before the killing began at Kondomari,Crete, in June 1941 | |
 Interactive map of Massacre of Kondomari | |
| Location | 35°30′25″N23°51′22″E / 35.50694°N 23.85611°E /35.50694; 23.85611 Kondomari,Chania,Crete,Kingdom of Greece (under German occupation) |
| Date | 2 June 1941 |
| Weapons | Machine guns andrifles |
| Deaths | 23 (German estimate), 60 Cretan men (other sources)[1] |
| Perpetrators | Fallschirmjäger of III Battalion ofLuftlande-Sturm-Regiment underOberleutnantHorst Trebes, following reprisal orders byGeneraloberstKurt Student |
TheMassacre of Kondomari (Greek:Σφαγή στο Κοντομαρί) was the execution of male civilians from the village ofKondomari inCrete by anad hoc firing squad consisting of Germanparatroopers on 2 June 1941 duringWorld War II.[2][3] The shooting was the first of a series ofreprisals inCrete, orchestrated byGeneraloberstKurt Student, in retaliation for the participation of Cretans in theBattle of Crete which had ended with the surrender of the island two days earlier. The massacre was photographed byFranz-Peter Weixler, a German army warpropaganda correspondent, whose negatives were discovered 39 years later in the federal German archives by a Greek journalist.
The village ofKondomari is part of thePlatanias municipality and is located near the north coast of Crete, 18 kilometres (11 miles) west of the city ofChania and 3 km (1.9 mi) southeast of theMaleme airstrip.
TheBattle of Crete began on 20 May 1941 with a large-scale airborne invasion aimed to capture the island's strategic locations. As was proven in practice, one of the most important locations was theMaleme airstrip and its surrounding region. Its capture allowed theLuftwaffe to fly in large-scale reinforcements of troops and supplies that eventually determined the outcome of the battle.
In the morning of 20 May 1941, Germanparatroopers of the III Battalion of the1st Air Landing Assault Regiment were dropped southeast of Maleme. Their landing site extended to Platanias and included Kondomari. The invaders were confronted byNew Zealand troops from the21st and22nd Battalions,[4] joined by ill-armed local civilians carrying primitive weapons. The paratroopers experienced strong resistance and suffered severe losses that totaled nearly 400 men out of 600, including their commander Major Otto Scherber.Eugen Meindl, the regiment's commander, was shot through the chest during his parachute jump near thePlatanias bridge but survived. He was replaced by OberstHermann-Bernhard Ramcke.
Throughout the Battle of Crete, theAllied forces and Cretan irregulars had inflicted heavy loss of life on theWehrmacht. The unprecedented resistance from the local population exasperated thePrussian sense of military order according to which only professional warriors were allowed to fight. Paratrooper units carried out impromptu executions before the end of the battle, e.g. atMissiria. Reports from GeneralJulius Ringel, commander of the5th Mountain Division, stated that Cretan civilians were picking off paratroopers or attacking them with knives, axes and scythes. Even before the end of the battle, exaggerated stories had started to circulate, attributing the excessively high casualties to torture and mutilation of paratroopers by the Cretans.[5] When these stories reached theLuftwaffe's High Command in Berlin,Göring ordered temporary commander GeneralKurt Student to undertake enquiries and reprisals. Thus, seeking to counter insurgency and before enquiries were complete, Student issued an order to launch a wave of reprisals against the local population immediately after the surrender of Crete on 31 May. The reprisals were to be carried out rapidly, omitting formalities or trials and by the same units who had been confronted by the locals.[5]
Following Student's order, the occupants of Kondomari were blamed for the death of a few German soldiers whose bodies had been found near the village. On 2 June 1941, four lorries full of German paratroopers from the III Battalion ofLuftlande-Sturm-Regiment 1 under the command ofOberleutnantHorst Trebes surrounded Kondomari.[6] Trebes, a former member of theHitler Youth, was the highest-ranking officer of the Battalion to have survived the Battle unwounded. Men, women and children were forced to gather in the village square. Then, a number of hostages was selected among the men while women and children were released. The hostages were led to the surrounding olive groves and later fired upon.[7] The exact number of the victims is unclear. According to German records, a total of 23 men were killed but other sources put the total at about 60.[5] The whole operation was captured on film byFranz-Peter Weixler, then serving as a war propaganda correspondent (Kriegsberichterstatter) for theWehrmacht.
The day following the massacre of Kondomari, forces of the 1st Air Landing Assault Regiment went on toraze Kandanos and murder most of its people.
After the summer of 1941,Franz-Peter Weixler was dismissed from the Wehrmacht for political reasons. He was later accused ofhigh treason againstNazi Germany for having leaked uncensored material related to the paratroopers' activities on Crete that included photographs taken in Kondomari, and for having helped some Cretans to flee.[5] Weixler was arrested by theGestapo, court martialled and imprisoned from early 1944. Post-war in November 1945, during Göring'strial in Nuremberg, Weixler gave a written eyewitness report on the Kondomari massacre. According to a documentary[8] of the Greek TV networkNET, he returned to Kondomari in 1955 where he was received by the villagers according to their traditional custom of hospitality. Realizing that there was no apparent hostility towards him, Weixler told them that he had been following orders on the day of the massacre. However, despite their apparent calmness, the villagers were tense and at some point, one of the survivors stood up and told his fellow villagers that the formal requirements of hospitality had been observed and they should leave. Thus, the assembled villagers immediately left the spot, leaving the photographer on his own.
Weixler's negatives from Kondomari were discovered in 1980 in the federal German archives by the Greek journalist Vassos Mathiopoulos,[9] who was unaware of the actual location of the shootings they depicted. Their connection to the events at Kondomari was later established via extensive research by journalist Kostas Papapetrou, after which Weixler's photographs became widely known.
In July 1941, Horst Trebes was awarded theKnight's Cross for his leadership during the assault against Crete. Three years later (1944), he was killed in action inNormandy.[5]
After the surrender of Germany,Kurt Student was captured by the British. In May 1947, he came before a military tribunal to answer charges of mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war and civilians by his forces in Crete. Greece's demand to have Student extradited was declined. Student was found guilty of three out of eight charges and sentenced to five years in prison. However, he was given a medical discharge and was released in 1948. Student was acquitted for crimes against civilians owing to the testimony ofBrigadierLindsay Inglis, commander of the4th New Zealand Brigade.[10] Student lived until 1978.
Kondomari has been declared amartyred village with Presidential Decree 29, ΦΕΚ Α 54/2.4.2019. A memorial in the village lists the names of the victims and has a wall of tiles portraying the incident.
