Figure 1.--he Waffen SS 4th Division was recruited from German policemen. The men were so proud of their work that they took photographs. Some compiled albums which they mostly destoyed at the end of the War. Here they are milling around the town center with burning buildinmgs in the background. Most of these ohotigraohs were destoued after the War. This one survived because it was found on the body of a dead 4th Div troper. Apparentky he was inspired by it and carried it into battle. Which tells you about the mindset of these people. You have to wonder that by June 1944 some did not begin to wonder if there would be retribution for actions like this.

The greatest single atrocity committed by the Germans in Greece was the seizure of food. Greece was not self sufficient in food. Thus seizing substantial quantities of food led to hunger and starvation. Most of the 0.3 million Greeks who died during the War starved to death, most of them children. The other major cause of death was the Holocaust--the murder of Greek Jews. In addition to these terrible actions was a long list of killing actions. The Kalavryta massacre is usually seen as the worst single NAZI action. The Germans massacred some 700 Greek males in the Peloponnesian village of Kalavryta. It was retaliation for the resistance forces executed nearly 80 Nazi soldiers. Of course the resistance fighters did this because the Germans were executing their men. There were some 30 other major such atrocities. The initial such atrocities were the Germans seeking out Jews and shooting them as hostages in in reprisal for reputed attacks on their men. Eventually running out of Jews they began to hold non-Jewish Greeks as hostages and shooting them--men and older boys. Eventually the Germans turned to unbridled savagery, shooting women and children as well as raping women and bayoneting babies. The most horrendous such attack was conducted by the Waffen-SS -- the Distomo massacre (Σφαγή του Διστόμου) (June 1944). A partisan group attacked a convoy of 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division near Distomo. This wasa SS unit made up of policemen and SS rescuiyts. Distomo was a small non-discript village near Delphi. There was no evidence that that the people in Distomo had any involvenent with the attack. As it was difficult to track down the partisans, the German practice was to exact revenge againdt a nearby village. Thus Waffen-SS troops of the 2nd company, I/7 battalion, commanded by 26-year-old SS-Hauptsturmführer Fritz Lautenbach burst into Distomo (June 10, 1944). For over 2 hours they ravaged the village amd its people., inclkiding men, women, and children of all ages. They went door to door to massacre the population. [Stein, p. 277,] The Germans murdered a total of 228 men, women and children. Some sources report a larger number of victims. Survivors who managed to hide from the Germans describe how the SS soldiers "bayoneted babies in their cribs, stabbed pregnant women, and beheaded the village priest." [BBC] German authorities investigated the attack, somthing that was not all that common after the Polish campaign (September 1939). Hitler made it clear that Grman soldietrs weere not to be punished forbactioins against enmy soldiers and civilianms. After the massacre, a Secret Field Police officer with ther unit was apparently horrified by what had happened. He informed the authorities that Lautenbach had not accuraterly reported the action. He hadc reported that his unit had been fired upon "with mortars, machine-guns and rifles from the direction of Distomo". An official inquiry was convened. Lutenbach admitted that he had gone beyond standing orders in he reprisal action. The tribunal found in his favor. Their jusstification was that he had had not been neglkikgent orv ignorasnt. Rather the tribunal found that he had a justifiable motivation -- a sense of responsibility towards the men in his command. [Mazower, pp. 212-14.] The 4th SS Panzer Division was committed to anti-partisan operations. Distomo was only one of the villages destroyed. If failed to dislodge the partisans and evacuate Greece along with the rest of the Gran units (September 1944), The Division ended the War in nnorthrn Germany, but rather than defending DFanzig againsdt the Red Army who were nore of a challenge than Greek wonen abd children, decided to move ewest band surrernder to the Americans.

Sources

BBC. "Greeks lose Nazi massacre claim," (June 26, 2003).

Hionidou, Violetta. Famine and Death in Occupied Greece, 1941-1944 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006).

Mazower, Mark. Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941-1944 (Yale University Press, 1993), 437p.

Stein, George. The Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War 1939–1945 (Cornell University Press, 1984).

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Created: 2:35 AM 3/11/2022
Last updated: 2:35 AM 3/11/2022