Caroline Martin, a lawyer and consultant of the German authorities in opposition to the Greek declare for battle reparations for the interval of the Nazi occupation, visits Greece and meets Nikolas Andreou, one of many final survivors of the Kalavritos Bloodbath of 1943. He narrates the occasions of the previous, the 2 of them will confront their private prejudices and beliefs in a painful confrontation that can deliver them nearer. This purifying journey via a darkish chapter of historical past will result in the popularity of a mutual want: the seek for hope.
A fictional drama impressed by true occasions, the “Bloodbath of Kalavryta” dedicated by invading German troops in December 1943. When the Greek authorities launches a multi-billion authorized declare for battle reparations, Caroline Martin, a high-flying lawyer representing the German authorities visits Kalavryta to analyze. An surprising encounter with the final survivor of the tragedy, Nikolaos Andreou, leads them each down a darkish chapter of historical past because the traumatic previous involves mild as soon as once more, its painful echoes stronger than ever.
In early December 1943, the German Military’s 117th Jäger Division started a mission named Unternehmen Kalavryta (Operation Kalavryta), meaning to encircle Greek Resistance guerilla fighters within the mountainous space surrounding Kalavryta. Throughout the operation, 78 German troopers, who had been taken prisoner by the guerrillas in October, have been executed by their captors. In response, the commander of the German division, Basic Karl von Le Suire personally ordered the “severest measures” — the killing of the male inhabitants of Kalavryta — on 10 December 1943.
Operation Kalavryta was mounted from six cities: Patras, Aigion, and Corinth on the Gulf of Corinth and from Argos, Pyrgos and Tripolis in central Peloponnese. All “Battle-Teams” have been aimed toward Kalavryta, though the divisions from Pyrgos, Argos, and Corinth returned to their bases quickly after.
Wehrmacht troops burnt villages and monasteries and shot civilians on their manner. The Germans reached Kalavryta on December 9. Within the early morning of December 13, 1943 the Germans rounded up all residents of the city and compelled them into the varsity constructing the place they separated the older boys and males from the ladies and kids. They moved the boys to a subject owned by Thanasis Kappis, a faculty instructor, simply overlooking the city.
After looting the city and setting it ablaze, the Germans machine-gunned the boys. 438 males and older boys have been killed. There have been solely 13 male survivors, saved as a result of they have been hidden below the our bodies of the useless.
Austrian troopers have been a part of the contingent. The subsequent name of order was to lock rounded up girls and kids right into a main faculty. After doing so the Germans set the varsity on hearth. There was one Austrian man who disobeyed orders and opened doorways to the blazing faculty, realizing he would sacrifice his life, for girls and kids to flee. He was later executed for his acts of treason, however the victims escaped.
The next day the Nazi troops burned down the Agia Lavra monastery, a landmark of the Greek Struggle of Independence.
In complete, 693 civilians have been killed in the course of the reprisals of Operation Kalavryta. Twenty-eight communities—cities, villages, monasteries and settlements—have been destroyed. In Kalavryta itself about 1,000 homes have been looted and burned, and greater than 2,000 livestock seized by the Germans.
As we speak the Place of Sacrifice is stored as a memorial website, and the occasions are commemorated each December. On 18 April 2000, then-President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Johannes Rau, visited Kalavryta and expressed disgrace and sorrow for the tragedy.
When November 16 – 25 at 8:30pm
The place Pantheon, Nicosia
Location
Tickets €8 | €6 (college students, massive households, pensioners)
Textual content and picture: Wikipedia