On June 10, 1944, one of the most brutal events in all of World War II took place in the tiny village of Distomo on the Greek mainland.
According to survivor testimony, Nazi SS troops went door to door and massacred 218 Greek civilians.
Survivors said that the Nazis bayoneted babies in their cribs and stabbed pregnant women and beheaded the village priest. It was a two-hour killing spree ordered by the Germans in retaliation for rebel activity in the area.
Following the massacre, a Secret Field Police agent accompanying German forces told authorities that, contrary to an official report from Nazi commander Fritz Lautenbach, German troops had come under attack several miles away from Distomo — not nearby.
The Secret Field Police said that the Germans had not been fired upon “with mortars, machine-guns and rifles from the direction of Distomo.”
Lautenbach later admitted that he had surpassed standing orders, but a tribunal ruled in his favor. The tribunal found that he was not motivated by negligence, but instead a sense of responsibility for his men.
Mark Mazower’s book “Inside Hitler’s Greece” carried extensive testimony and first hand accounts from the massacre and is one of the best contemporary re-tellings of the massacre.
The iconic American magazine LIFE also carried a photo essay in its November 24, 1944 edition.
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4 comments
My Grandfathers family were killed in Distomo Massacre George Edward Chamales I am looking for any names of his Mother and Father and family that were murdered by the NAZIs
Hi Sheryll, google Argiris Sfountouris, he witnessed the massacre, his parents and relatives were also murdered in the massacre. He was very young and was sent to an orphanage, later sent to Switzerland where he studied astrophysics, returned to Greece and has been campaigning for justice for the Dimostomo’s massacre. If anyone was to help, perhaps he might be the best option. Best of luck.
DO NOT FORGET: Germany had never paid any kind of reparation to the families of those masacred nor to Greece, thought was convicted. German masacres happened as well to Vianos in Krete, Kalavryta in Peloponese and Hortiatis near by Thessaloniki.
The late Manolis Glezos, being the man to plan and succed the very first act of resistance in Europe, devoted his life fighting for those war reparations. He died in Athens during the covid-19 pandemic.
My papou parachuted into Greece at 1:30 am on June 10 to become the liaison between the OSS groups who were embedded to assist the andartes. The timing always strikes me.