The German occupiers plundered the entirety of Greece’s industrial and agricultural production. They transported thousands of tons of chromium, bauxite, nickel, molybdenum, pyrite, tobacco, silver, copper, oil, coal, timber, and more to Germany. Among these were 12 tons of gold. During the initial months of the Occupation and beyond, they confiscated essential food supplies and reserves for their own needs, including grains, raisins, olive oil, cotton, sugar, rice, and other staples.

The consequence of this savage plunder was catastrophic starvation across the Greek population, with countless individuals perishing in the streets. During the winter of 1941-1942, the great famine claimed the lives of 300,000 Greeks due to starvation. In total, from 1941 to 1944, over 600,000 Greeks perished from malnutrition, diseases, hostage-takings, and civilian executions. By the war’s end, 75% of children were afflicted with diseases.

Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano, visiting Athens in 1942 and witnessing thousands of beggars in the streets, noted in his diary: “The Germans took from the Greeks even the laces from their shoes.“

In addition to the famine, the Germans COMMITTED MASSACRES OF CIVILIANS in Greece (violations of the 1907 Hague Convention). The total population loss in Greece during World War II amounted to 13.5%.

The Germans DESTROYED 1770 TOWNS AND VILLAGES, with 131 holocausts recognized to date. Some of the communities that suffered from German atrocities include Alikianos, Anogeia, Giannitsa, Damasta, Distomo, Kaisariani, Kandanos, Kerdyllia, Kleisoura, Kommeno, Kontomari, Lingiades, Mesovouno, Mousiotitsa, Paramythia, Pyrgoi, Ypati, Hortiatis, the villages of Viannos, and many other communities.

Two chilling brutal decrees fueled the horrors of the Greek Holocausts:

(1) Hitler’s ruthless edict: “If even a whisper of suspicion falls on a house   for aiding the Resistance, it shall be razed to the ground with all its inhabitants burned alive.”

(2) Field Marshal Keitel’s barbaric mandate: “For every German slain, at least 50 Greeks shall be slaughtered; for every German wounded, at least 10 Greeks shall meet their doom.”

We highlight just two heart-wrenching examples from the 131 Greek Holocausts:

The Viannos Massacre (September 14-16, 1943): In a frenzy of cruelty, the Germans slaughtered 461 innocent souls, reduced 10 villages to ashes, and obliterated 980 homes, shattering countless lives. In 1945, author Nikos Kazantzakis, serving on the United Nations’ “Committee for the Investigation of Atrocities in Crete,” bore witness to the unspeakable savagery of the regular German Wehrmacht. He recounted with anguish: “The Germans seized tender children, tormenting them to force confessions; with bayonets they carved their delicate cheeks and legs… they ripped out their teeth with cold steel and, in the end, mercilessly slit their throats. After the executions, the drunken firing squads of Vachos, Amira, and Kefalovrysi danced in grotesque revelry atop the lifeless bodies of their victims.”

Kalavryta Holocaust (December 13, 1943): The most harrowing single-day massacre by German forces in Greece, an act of unimaginable barbarity. The Germans mercilessly butchered 1,460 innocent civilians and reduced the town to smoldering ruins. After slaughtering every male from 12 to 90 years old in a bloodbath of cruelty, they herded terrified women and children into the school and set it ablaze, condemning them to a fiery grave.

One hundred twenty thousand (120,000) Greeks were forcibly deported from their homeland and sent to the horrors of German concentration and extermination camps. A mere 15,000 emerged from this nightmare alive. The haunting inscription on the Greek memorial at Mauthausen pleads: “We, the slain of this place, implore you: do not forget us, for to forget evil is to invite its return”.