On April 24, 1944, at
Pyrgoi
Pyrgoi ( el, Πύργοι, before 1927: Κατράνιτσα - ''Katranitsa'') is a village and a Communities and Municipalities of Greece, community of the Eordaia, Eordaia municipality. It is located in Northern Greece, in the region of Western ...
(Katranitsa) took place the biggest slaughter of Greeks civilians (after this
Kalavryta) by German
Nazis
Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Na ...
and their local accomplices. The events of April 1944 were later the subject of dozens of documentaries, and generated wide interest. Among the atrocities that were committed by the Nazis, 368 men women and children were killed and burned alive. Colonel
Karl Schümers
Karl Schümers (17 October 1905 – 16 August 1944) was a high-ranking commander in the Waffen-SS and ''Ordnungspolizei'' (police) of Nazi Germany during World War II. He commanded the SS Polizei Division in July – August 1944 and was directly ...
, commander of the 7th constitution armored Grenadier police of the
SS, was responsible for the massacres in Pyrgoi, Kleisoura Kastoria, and Distomo Boeotia which killed 862 men, women and children. The survivors were forced to walk to
Ptolemaida and town completely destroyed. Each year to Pyrgoi being present in established memorial for the victims of the Holocaust, the Greek President.
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{{coord missing, Greece
Conflicts in 1944
Nazi war crimes in Greece
Mass murder in 1944
1944 in Greece
April 1944 events
Massacres in 1944
Massacres in Greece during World War II
Greek Macedonia in World War II