Nazi atrocities (жестокость, зверство) German soldiers of the 117th Jager Division in the burning town of Kalavryta (Калаврита).
German soldiers of the 117th Jager Division in the burning town of Kalavryta.
Increasing attacks by partisans in the latter years of the Occupation resulted in a number of executions (казнь) and wholesale (массовый) slaughter (забой скота, жестокое убийство) of civilians (гражданское население) in reprisal (репрессии). The most famous examples are those of the village of Kommeno (August 16, 1943) by 1.Gebirgs-Division, where 317 inhabitants (житель) were murdered and the village torched (гореть как факел), the "Massacre (резня, бойня) of Kalavryta" (December 13, 1943), in which Wehrmacht troops of the 117th Jager Division carried out (довели до конца) the extermination (уничтожение, истребление) of the entire male population and the subsequent (последующее) total destruction of the town, and the "Massacre of Distomo" (June 10, 1944), where an SS Police unit looted (разграбление) and burned the village of Distomo in Boeotia, resulting in the deaths of 218 civilians. At the same time, in the course of the concerted (согласованный) anti-guerrilla campaign, hundreds of villages were systematically torched and almost one million Greeks left homeless.[2]
Two other notable but almost unknown acts of brutality were the massacres (резня; бойня, избиение) of Italian troops at the islands of Cephallonia (Кефалиния) and Kos in September 1943, during the German takeover (взятие под контроль) of the Italian occupation areas. In Cephallonia, the 12,000-strong Italian 'Acqui' Division was attacked on September 13 by elements of 1.Gebirgs-Division with support from Stukas, and forced to surrender (сдача, капитуляция) on September 21, after suffering some 1,300 casualties (потери (на войне)). The next day, the Germans began executing (казнь) their prisoners (заключенные) and did not stop until over 4,500 Italians had been shot. The ca. 4,000 survivors (оставшийся в живых, уцелевший) were put aboard ships for the mainland, but some of them sunk (утонули) after hitting mines in the Ionian Sea, where another 3,000 were lost.[3] The Cephallonia massacre (резня,бойня) serves as the background for the novel Captain Corelli's Mandolin.[4][5]