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A thread on the massacre of unarmed civilians at the Village of Kondomari on this day, 2 June in 1941 by men of the Luflande-Sturm-Regiment commanded by Oberleutnant Horst Trebes from a ‘then and now’ perspective.
As shown on this map, III Battalion Sturmregiment had dropped around Kondomari on 20 May 1941 on top of the NZ 22nd Battalion. Many of the FJR were killed before or just as they hit the ground and their corpses, lying out in the sun for 10 days had rapidly decomposed...
...as well as been picked at by Buzzards. This man, Hauptmann Horst Trebes (shown on the right) was of the opinion that a high number of the mutilated corpses in the area were in a large part due to the local population, hence his decision to carry out reprisals.
On 2 June 1941 four trucks arrived in Kondomari carrying Trebes and his men. They were accompanied by a Wehrmacht photographer, Franz Peter Weixler who recorded the following events, starting with a review of the ‘evidence’ retrieved.
The Fallschirmjager began a systematic search of the houses in Kondomari, some like this one are still identifiable today from as they were in 1941. They were looking for all the men of the village deemed to be of a fighting age.
The villagers were pulled from their homes and marched to a point at the northern edge of Kondomari. The route is easily traceable today.
Weixler went ahead to the point the villagers were being brought to before turning his camera back southwards towards the village.
More were being brought in from the north of Kondomari, closer to the coast. The trucks that brought the Fallschirmjager to the village can be seen in the distance.
The men of the age the Germans were looking for were seperated from the rest and sat by the roadside. The German officer on the left is Trebes. Directly across the road from them the Paratroopers began to gather.
One can only begin to wonder at what point the local men began to realise what fate the Germans had in store for them. Note the Soldiers moving away to take up position in the secluded olive grove behind.
At this point the rest of the villagers who had gathered were marched south back in to the village with anxious glances back to their menfolk.
The men were ordered in to the olive grove. It’s now someone’s home but they very kindly allowed us in. The Fallschirmjager lined up here and then opened fire.
Those not killed instantly were finished off with a pistol at close range.
23 men. The youngest was 21, the eldest was 47. Thirteen of them came from just four families.
Today at the site the men are remembered by a superb memorial garden. The photos are on glazed tiles.
I'm indebted to @WW2Talk who supplied this account from the photographer who was present that day, Franz Peter Weixler.
Horst Trebes never faced justice for what happened in Kondomari on this day 79 years ago. He was killed in action in Normandy in 1944. A concise Bio of him is here. http://www.fallschirmjager.net/men/Trebes/trebes.html
Finally, the memorial to Cretan Resistance in Kondomari. They'd been fighting the Invader, on and off for 500 years before the Germans came.
