The Alikianos executions ( el, εκτελέσεις στον Αλικιανό) was the mass execution by firing squad of mostly male civilians from Alikianos and nearby villages in

Crete Crete ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus, and ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

by German

paratroopers A paratrooper is a military parachutist—someone trained to parachute into a military operation, and usually functioning as part of an airborne force. Military parachutists (troops) and parachutes were first used on a large scale during Worl ...

on 24 May, 2 June and 1 August 1941 during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

.Γέφυρα Κερίτη: Δύο φορές στο εκτελεστικό απόσπασμα)
Πατρίς onLine, 12 Μαρτίου 2019; archive
here
/ref> The executions were ordered by

Generaloberst A ("colonel general") was the second-highest general officer rank in the German ''Reichswehr'' and ''Wehrmacht'', the Austro-Hungarian Common Army, the East Germany, East German National People's Army and in their respective police services. ...

Kurt Student Kurt Arthur Benno Student (12 May 1890 – 1 July 1978) was a German general in the Luftwaffe during World War II. An early pioneer of airborne forces, Student was in overall command of developing a paratrooper force to be known as the ''Fallschi ...

, commander of the XI Air Corps, in

reprisal A reprisal is a limited and deliberate violation of international law to punish another sovereign state that has already broken them. Since the 1977 Additional Protocol I to the Geneva Conventions (AP 1), reprisals in the laws of war are extremel ...

for the active participation of Cretan civilians in the

Battle of Crete The Battle of Crete (german: Luftlandeschlacht um Kreta, el, Μάχη της Κρήτης), codenamed Operation Mercury (german: Unternehmen Merkur), was a major Axis airborne and amphibious operation during World War II to capture the island ...

Background

The village of Alikianos ( el, Αλικιανός) is located on a fertile plain near the north coast of Crete, approximately 12 km (7.5 mi) southwest of the city of

Chania Chania ( el, Χανιά ; vec, La Canea), also spelled Hania, is a city in Greece and the capital of the Chania regional unit. It lies along the north west coast of the island Crete, about west of Rethymno and west of Heraklion. The muni ...

. During the Battle of Crete,

Richard Heidrich __NOTOC__ Richard Heidrich (27 July 1896 – 22 December 1947) was a German paratroop general during World War II. He was a recipient of the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cross with Oak Leaves and Swords of Nazi Germany. Heidrich was taken prison ...

's 3rd Fallschirmjäger Regiment (''FJR 3'') was ordered to land on the plain and advance northwest towards the

Maleme Maleme ( el, Μάλεμε) is a small village and military airport to the west of Chania, in north western Crete, Greece. It is located in Platanias municipality, in Chania (regional unit), Chania regional unit. History Bronze Age A Late Minoan ...

airstrip, one of the island's most strategic targets. Covering the rear of the 3rd Regiment was the 7th Engineer Battalion, dropped in the vicinity of Alikianos between the road to Chania and the bed of Keritis ( el, Κερίτης, ancient Ιάρδανος, '' Iardanus'') river and charged with the mission to conduct reconnaissance. The Engineer Battalion were confronted by the ill-armed and poorly trained 8th Greek Regiment, who were assisted by local irregulars. Despite being armed with primitive weapons, the locals attacked the Parachute Engineer Battalion, inflicting significant losses.Antill, P. ''Crete 1941: Germany's lightning airborne assault''. Campaign series. Oxford; New York: Osprey Publishing. 2005, . The area in and around Alikianos was the site of a fierce battle that started on 21 May, and lasted for seven days. The battle zone became known as ''Prison Valley'' owing to the presence of a

prison farm A prison farm (also known as a penal farm) is a large correctional facility where penal labor convicts are forced to work on a farm legally and illegally (in the wide sense of a productive unit), usually for manual labor, largely in the open air ...

that was its prominent building. The gallant defence of the 8th Greek Regiment and the local population is today credited with protecting the Allied line of retreat, making possible their safe withdrawal and subsequent evacuation from

Sfakia Sfakiá ( el, Σφακιά) is a mountainous area in the southwestern part of the island of Crete, in the Chania regional unit. It is considered to be one of the few places in Greece that have never been fully occupied by foreign powers. With a ...

.Stewart, I. McD. G. ''The Struggle for Crete, 20 May - 1 June 1941: A Story of Lost Opportunity'', Oxford University Press, 1991. .Beevor, Antony. ''Crete: The Battle and the Resistance'', John Murray Ltd, 1991. Penguin Books, 1992.

The executions

Infuriated by the involvement of the local population in resisting the invasion by German paratroopers and the heavy losses inflicted on them, Göring ordered General Student to launch

collective punishment Collective punishment is a punishment or sanction imposed on a group for acts allegedly perpetrated by a member of that group, which could be an ethnic or political group, or just the family, friends and neighbors of the perpetrator. Because ind ...

operations against the locals soon after the end of the Battle. Among other punitive measures, these operations prescribed

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary justice (such as a drumhead court-martial) are sometimes include ...

s.Stroud, R. ''Kidnap in Crete: The True Story of the Abduction of a Nazi General'', Bloomsbury USA, 2015, p.48,

24 May 1941

On 24 May 1941, while the Battle of Crete was still being fought, a German patrol arrested 6 male civilians in Alikianos. Upon discovering the dead body of a paratrooper officer, the Germans killed the hostages by firing squad. One of the hostages, Vassilis Drakakis (Βασίλης Δρακακάκης), survived the execution and the following

coup de grâce A coup de grâce (; 'blow of mercy') is a death blow to end the suffering of a severely wounded person or animal. It may be a mercy killing of mortally wounded civilians or soldiers, friends or enemies, with or without the sufferer's consent. ...

but was later arrested again and shot in the third execution on 1 August 1941.

2 June 1941

On 2 June 1941, Alikianos was surrounded by German forces. 42 male civilians were marched to the churchyard and shot in groups of ten in front of their relatives.Κανελλοπούλου, Ευγενία. ''Ελληνικά ολοκαυτώματα 1940–1945'', εκδ. Λιβάνη, 2010, . On the same day and during similar operations, 12 and 25 civilians were respectively executed in the nearby villages of Agia ( el, Αγυιά) and Kyrtomado (Κυρτομάδω).

1 August 1941

General

Alexander Andrae Alexander Andrae (27 April 1888 – 3 April 1979), whose first name is often mistakenly given as ''Waldemar'', was a German military officer from Kösling, Upper Silesia. Initially pursuing an Army career, he then joined the security police and ...

, who succeeded Student as the Commander-in-Chief of

Fortress Crete Fortress Crete (german: Festung Kreta) was the term used during World War II by the German occupation forces to refer to the garrison and fortification of Crete. The Greek island of Crete was seized by the Axis after a fierce battle at the en ...

, continued Student's campaign of retaliations. Two months after the first execution, the Germans gathered 118 civilians at a bridge over the Keritis river near Alikianos and shot them after forcing them to dig their own graves. Twelve of those killed were from Alikianos whereas the rest came from the nearby villages Fournes ( el, Φουρνές), Skines (Σκηνές), Vatolakos (Βατόλακκος), Koufo (Κουφό), Prases (Πρασές), Karanou (Καράνου), Lakkoi (Λάκκοι), Orthouni (Ορθούνι), Nea Roumata (Νέα Ρούματα) and Hosti (Χωστή).Kiriakopoulos, G.C. ''The Nazi Occupation of Crete: 1941–1945'', Praeger Publishers, 1995, .

Aftermath

After the surrender of Germany, Student was captured by the British. In May 1947, he came before a military tribunal to answer charges of mistreatment and murder of prisoners of war by his forces in Crete. Greece's demand to have Student extradited was declined. Student was found guilty of three out of eight charges and sentenced to five years in prison. However, he was given a medical discharge and was released in 1948. Student was never tried for crimes against civilians. Andrae was captured by the British and then extradited to Greece to be tried for war crimes he was responsible for during his time in Crete. In 1947, he was condemned to four life sentences, but after spending four years in prison, he was released in January 1952.

Memorials

A monument commemorating the victims of the first execution has been erected by the church of Alikianos. A second one stands near the Keritis bridge.

External links

The invasion of Crete: The Reputation of the Wehrmacht is at Stake
Richard Hargreaves, 2011
German occupation of Crete: Alikianos
(in German -
translate

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Alikianos Executions Conflicts in 1941 Mass murder in 1941 Nazi war crimes in Greece 1941 in Greece Massacres in Greece during World War II Battle of Crete Massacres of men June 1941 events Crete in World War II War crimes of the Wehrmacht Violence against men in Europe