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Distomo massacre

Coordinates:38°26′00″N22°40′00″E/ 38.4333333333°N 22.6666666667°E/38.4333333333; 22.6666666667
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Distomo massacre
German troops in front of buildings set ablaze in Distomo, during the massacre.
LocationDistomo,Kingdom of Greece(under German-occupation)
Date10 June 1944
Deaths228 civilians
PerpetratorsKarl Schümers,Fritz Lautenbach
4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division

TheDistomo massacre(Greek:Σφαγή του Διστόμου;German:Massaker von Distomoor theDistomo-Massaker) was aNaziwar crimewhich was perpetrated by members of theWaffen-SSin the village ofDistomo,Greece,in 1944, during theGerman occupation of GreeceduringWorld War II.

Background

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The 2nd company of the 4th Waffen-SSPolizei PanzergrendierDivision was serving in Greece in 1944, made-up of mostly ofvolksdeutsche(ethnic German) teenagers fromHungaryandRomania.It was commanded by zealousSSofficers.[1]The heavy losses taken on the Eastern Front had caused the SS to lower its standards as the war went on and many of the teenagers in the company were underaged with some as young as 14 or 15.[1]British historianMark Mazowerdescribed the 2nd Company as being made up of a "lethal combination" of ill-trainedvolksdeutscheteenagers determined to prove their sense ofdeutschtum(Germanness) with fanatical SS officers.[1]This was especially the case as almost all of the Hungarian and Romanianvolksdeutscheteenagers serving in the division did not have the requisite family histories proving that they were of pure German descent, and instead had only vague written statements from their localvolksdeutschecommunity associations attesting to their pure German descent.[2]These statements were not considered satisfactory by the SS, which noted that though thevolksdeutscheserving in the SS were German in terms of language and culture, that they suspected that many of them had Hungarian and/or Romanian blood.[2]

The commanding officer of the division, SS-BrigadeführerFritz Schmedes had taken part as an youngFreikorpsofficer in the "vicious fighting" in Upper Silesia in 1921 and fought the Greeks in precisely the same manner that he had fought the Poles.[1]The regimental commander, SS-StandartenführerKarl Schümers,was an ultra-aggressive man prone to "extremely draconian" methods, as even a sympathetic SS evaluation had put it, whose zeal and aggression had not been curbed by a serious head wound he taken on the Eastern Front in 1942.[1]SS-HauptsturmführerFritz Lautenbach began his career in the elite 1st SS Panzer DivisionLeibstandarte SS Adolf Hitlerand was known to be a militant Nazi.[1]However, Mazower wrote that, though the composition of the division and its cast of commanders made it more likely to commit atrocities, the massacre should be put into context, namely it operated as part of Army Group E and the standing orders of the Wehrmacht in Greece was to use terror as a way to frighten the Greeks into not supporting theandartes(guerrillas).[3]

The mainandarteforce that fought the Germans during the war was the ELAS (Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós– Greek People's Liberation Army), which was the military arm of the EAM (Ethnikó Apeleftherotikó Métopo– National Liberation Front), which was dominated by cadres of the KKE (Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas– Communist Party of Greece).[4]Throughout the war against the Soviet Union, German propaganda portrayed the war as a noble struggle to protect "European civilization" from "Bolshevism".[5]Likewise, German officials portrayed theReichas nobly occupying Greece to protect it from Communists and presented EAM as a demonic force.[5]Theandartes,especially close of the ELAS, were portrayed in both the Wehrmacht and the SS as a "savages" and "criminals" who committed all sorts of crimes and who needed to be hunted down without mercy.[6]

The British engaged in numerous intelligence deceptions designed to fool the Germans into thinking that the Allies would be landing in Greece in the near-future, and as such Army Group E was reinforced to stop the expected Allied landing in the Balkans.[7]From the viewpoint of GeneralAlexander Löhr,the commander of Army Group E, the attacks of theandartes,which forced his men to spread themselves out to hunt them down, were weakening his forces by leaving them exposed and spread out in the face of an expected Allied landing. However, the mountainous terrain of Greece ensured that there were only a limited number of roads and railroads bringing down supplies from Germany and even the destruction of a single bridge by theandartescaused major supply problems for the German forces. The best knownandarteoperation of the war, namely theblowing up of the Gorgopotamos viaducton the night of 25 November 1942, had caused the Germans serious logistical problems as it severed the main railroad linking Thessaloniki to Athens.[8]To secure its supply lines, Army Group E had to eliminate theandartes,but at the same time, the sweeps designed to eliminate the swift moving and lightly armedandartebands forced Army Group E to spread out its force thin, which would have been dangerous had the Allies landed in Greece. After the failure of numerous sweeps designed to hunt down theandartesover the course of 1942–1943, Lohr in the winter of 1943–1944 started to employ what Mazower called the "indiscriminate slaughter of civilians" as the best way to fight theandartes.[9]

The massacre

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On 10 June 1944, for over two hours, Waffen-SS troops of the 2nd company, I/7 battalion,4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Divisionunder the command of the 26-year-old SS-HauptsturmführerFritz Lautenbachwent door to door andmassacredGreek civilians as part of "savage reprisals" for apartisanattack upon the unit's convoy.[10]

A Greek housewife living in Distomo in a postwar affidavit known only as Nitsa N. stated on the afternoon of 10 June, she saw the Waffen-SS drive into the village and they immediately shot down everyone they saw on the streets.[11]She reported that one of the SS kicked in the door to her house and shot down her husband and her children in the kitchen.[12]Other accounts mentioned that 2nd company engaged extensively in rape, looting, and mutilation.[1]A Greek schoolgirl known as Sofia D. reported that she was with her father and brother working the fields outside of the village when they saw smoke rising up to blacken the sky.[1]Sofia D. reported that her father told the children to stay in the field while he headed back for their mother.[1]While heading away from Distomo, Sofia and her brother encountered Waffen-SS men on a truck headed towards the village and both were shot down as they attempted to run away.[1]

A total of 228 men, women and children were killed in Distomo,[13]a small village nearDelphi.[14]According to survivors, SS forces "bayonetedbabies in their cribs, stabbed pregnant women, andbeheadedthe village priest. "[14]However, another source ( "Life, The First Decade", Time Inc., 1979, p. 138.LCCN79-88091) refers to "the 1,000 citizens slaughtered by the Germans". An appalled Red Cross team from Athens which arrived at the ruins of Distomo a few days later reported seeing mutilated bodies hanging from the trees all along the road to Distomo.[11]

Following the massacre, aSecret Field Policeagent, Georg Koch, accompanying the German forces informed the authorities that, contrary to Lautenbach's official report, the German troops had come under attack several miles from Distomo and had not been fired upon "with mortars, machine-guns and rifles from the direction of Distomo".[11]Following a complaint from the collaborationist Hellenic State regime ofIoannis RallistoHermann Neubacherof theAuswärtiges Amt,an investigation was opened.[11]As a diplomat, Neubacher was concerned at maintaining the increasingly shaky Rallis government whose authority was collapsing by 1944.[11]An inquiry was convened. As Lautenbach was operating under the command of the Army Group E at the time of the massacre, the inquiry was conducted by Wehrmacht officers, not SS officers.[11]Lautenbach admitted that he had gone beyond standing orders, but the tribunal found in his favour, holding that he had been motivated, not by negligence or ignorance, but by a sense of responsibility towards his men.[15]

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Four relatives of victims brought legal proceedings against the German government to court in Livadeia, Greece, demanding reparations. On October 30, 1997, the court ruled in favour of the plaintiffs and awarded damages of 28 million Euros. Eventually in May 2000, theSupreme Civil and Criminal Court of Greece,confirmed this ruling. The judgment, however, could not be enforced in Greece because, as necessary under Greek law, the execution of a judgment against a sovereign state is subject to the prior consent of the Minister of Justice, which was not given.

The plaintiffs brought the case to court in Germany, demanding the aforementioned damages be paid to them. The claim was rejected at all levels of German court, citing the1961 bilateral agreement concerning enforcement and recognition of judgementsbetween Germany and Greece, andSection 328 of the German Code of Civil Procedure.Both required that Greece have jurisdiction, which it does not as the actions in question were sovereign acts by a state. According to thefundamental principles of international law,each country is immune from another state's jurisdiction.[16]

In November 2008, an Italian court ruled that the plaintiffs could take German property in Italy as compensation that was awarded by the Greek courts.[17]The plaintiffs were awarded a villa in Menaggio, near Lake Como, which is owned by a German state nonprofit organization, as part of therestitution.

In December 2008, the German government filed a claim at theInternational Court of Justiceinthe Hague.The German claim was that the Italian courts should have dismissed the case under theinternational law of sovereign immunity.[16]

In January 2011, the Prime Minister of Greece,George Papandreou,announced that the Greek Government would be represented at theInternational Court of Justicein relation to the claim for reparations by relatives of victims.[18][17]Inits 2012 final judgement,the court ruled that Italy had violated Germany's state immunity, and directed that the judgment by the Italian courts be retracted.[19]In 2014 the Italian Constitutional Court ruled that sovereign immunity for crimes such as Distomo violated the core rights guaranteed by the Italian constitution. Sovereign immunity would therefore no longer be applicable law in Italy for the war crimes cases in question. New claims for compensation for the Distomo massacre could therefore be brought before Italian courts.[20]

In film

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A Song for Argyrisis a 2006 documentary film that details the life story of Argyris Sfountouris, a survivor of the massacre.

The massacre is described in Peter Nestler's experimental documentaryVon Griechenland(1966).

Memorial

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A monument was built in the 1980s outside the city to remember the lives lost.

See also

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Books

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  • Mazower, Mark (1993).Inside Hitler's Greece: The Experience of Occupation, 1941–44.New Haven: Yale University Press.ISBN0300089236.

Notes

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  1. ^abcdefghijMazower 1993,p. 214.
  2. ^abMazower 1993,p. 229.
  3. ^Mazower 1993,p. 215.
  4. ^Mazower 1993,p. 104.
  5. ^abMazower 1993,p. 322.
  6. ^Mazower 1993,pp. 159–60.
  7. ^Mazower 1993,pp. 144–45.
  8. ^Mazower 1993,p. 138.
  9. ^Mazower 1993,p. 172.
  10. ^Stein, George.The Waffen-SS: Hitler's Elite Guard at War 1939–1945,Cornell University Press, 1984, p. 277.ISBN9780801492754.
  11. ^abcdefMazower 1993,p. 212.
  12. ^Mazower 1993,pp. 212–14.
  13. ^"Greek Government response to ICJ Ruling" Embassy of Greece.
  14. ^ab"Greeks lose Nazi massacre claim." 26 June 2003, BBC.
  15. ^Mark Mazower,Inside Hitler's Greece,Yale University Press, New Haven and London, 1993, pp. 212–14.
  16. ^ab"German Supreme Court: Distomo Massacre Case, BGH - III ZR 245/98 (June 26, 2003)".International Law in Brief.American Society of International Law.25 July 2003. Archived fromthe originalon October 9, 2007.
  17. ^ab"Greece to join Distomo trial".Kathimerini.2011-01-12.Retrieved13 January2011.
  18. ^Eleni Chrepa; Maria Petrakis (2011-01-12)."Greece to Join Hague German War Reparations Case".Bloomberg.Retrieved13 January2011.
  19. ^"International Court of Justice Ruling." International Court of Justice 3 February, 2012Archived2016-12-13 at theWayback Machine.
  20. ^"Hoping for Distomo – Of time and transition" Juwiss, 10 June, 2016.
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