On April 27, 1941, Nazi troops occupied Athens and raised the swastika on the Acropolis. One of the most horrible chapters of Greek history begins, the occupation. Much has been written, but not all.

This is what almost all researchers who are still studying the occupation period agree with. One such case is the Greek Martyrdom Villages, which are the focus of a new book forthcoming from Springer in English, based on the PhD thesis of political scientist Babis Karpouchtsis, a research associate at the Department of Political Science at the Helmut Schmidt University of the German Armed Forces. of forces in Hamburg.

“German Foreign Policy and Martyrdom Villages. Reconciliation Policy towards Greece and the role of Recognition“, is the title of the thesis prepared at the University of Jena and which was recently awarded by the Society of Southeast Europe and the Fritz and Helga Exner Foundation.

“I wanted to see how the German foreign policy of reconciliation works towards Greece and specifically in the martyr villages: how do people feel in these places, what are the characteristics of this policyBabis Karpouchtsis, who lives in Berlin, tells DW.

Mapping the Greek Martyrdom Villages

The idea was born during the financial crisis, when he was working as a young independent political consultant. Then he dealt with the debate about the period of the Nazi occupation in Greece, which was again in the news, as well as with the issue of war reparations and reparations, but also with the so-called German policy of reconciliation.

“The more I came into contact with people from martyred villages through my work, I saw that many were not convinced that this German effort has any depth or seriousness. What the Germans saw as a desire for reconciliation, people in Greece did not experiencehe remembers.

As part of the research, he relied on primary and secondary literature and traveled to ten martyred villages, among them Kandano in Crete, Distomo, Kalavryta, Lehovo and Servia Kozani, conducting interviews with representatives of martyred villages, members of local associations, mayors, priests and residents who are actively involved in local historical memory.

“When I finished my PhD, about a year ago, the Greek martyr villages were 124. At the moment there must be a total of 140 communities in 60 municipalities».

The characterization of a place as martyrdom is subject to three criteria of the Greek Ministry of the Interior: either about 80% of the building material of a place must have been destroyed or a place must have suffered a population loss of about 10% from executions, massacres or bombings or finally, the two previous criteria coincide.

After the war: The attitude of Greece and Germany

But what was the attitude of Greece and Germany after the war?

“After World War II, Greece enters a civil war. Martyrdom sites automatically take second place and there is no specific help for these sites and their inhabitants who experienced the horror. The Greek state did not help, as it had other problems to deal with. In Greece, the title “martyr city” officially began to exist in 1993. Later, the title “martyr village” was added‘” notes the researcher.

As for Germany, “the official German state – before and after the fall of the Wall and Reunification – refused any help. There were some organizations or individual people who made efforts. The case of Schramm von Tanden in Kalavryta is typical, she helped Kalavryta widows and tried to offer help to some other martyred villages. But she herself has always been careful not to create the impression that this aid comes from the official German state or that it is some kind of reparations.».

As for whether the history of the martyred villages can be connected to the demand for war reparations and compensations, the researcher believes that there is a connection. “The feeling of injustice in the places of martyrdom is very strong. Also the memory there weighs more. The people there experience it differently in their daily lives, either because they see the monument in the square or because they have a memorial day once a year or because they themselves are descendants of victims. I have been told by people in martyred villages that until they left their village at the age of 16 or 17 they did not know that women wore colors, they only knew them in black. There are places where people grew up in homes knowing that their people were murdered there. They didn’t have money or couldn’t renovate the house and they lived with the marks of the killer,” says Babis Karpouchtsis.

Historical memory as foreign policy

A crucial element that pervades the research is the function of historical memory as a tool for the exercise of German foreign policy. In 2014, for the first time, a German president, Joachim Gauck, goes to the Ioannina Leagues and asks for an apology or forgiveness from the families of the murdered.

“2014 is a little late, but better late than never. And in 2000, Johannes Rau had the opportunity to say something similar in Kalavrita, but he didn’t. Gauck did. The timing was perhaps not coincidental either, because in the midst of the economic crisis, Greek-German relations had reached their nadir,” observes Babis Karpouchtsis, noting that Gauk’s “apology” has been imprinted on the memory of many residents of martyred villages. “It was a landmark move for German foreign policy of reconciliation but also a gesture that the descendants and representatives of the victims had been waiting for decades».

Movement is not just about words. A little later, the procedures, albeit time-consuming, for the establishment of a Hellenic-German Youth Foundation and a Hellenic-German Fund for the Future begin. As the political scientist clarifies, the second is a purely German fund “because the Greek state is not officially involved, but only the German Foreign Ministry, so the name is a bit problematic”. In fact, as he says, opinions differ: “on the one hand, this Fund is quite criticized by the Network of Martyrdom Cities and Villages, but on the other hand it is used by various bodies, among them associations, universities, some bodies of the civil society of martyred places , some Israeli Communities as well as individuals for projects of memory and reconciliation». For the same other, it is the main source of concern: “When the aggressor’s side asks for reconciliation, it cannot at the same time be the one that sets the terms of the process of reconciliation and rapprochement, especially when we are talking about war crimes, crimes against humanity, the Holocaust, the destruction of entire villages and the slaughter of people».

Open wounds and a need for reconciliation

2025 marks 80 years since the end of World War II. “Eighty years later, feelings of enmity or litigation have subsided, this chapter closes. The citizens of the two countries are now fellow citizens within the EU,” observes Babis Karpouchtsis.

“The two countries have close diplomatic, economic and social relations. This is precisely why the subject is so painful. When you have such a close friendship, how can you allow this wound to remain open for so many years, to pretend it doesn’t exist? Even eighty years later there is and should be room for debate, especially between friendly countries that believe in a just order and support international law. Between countries that want fair international relations, support peace, want no wars and attacks and never target the civilian population».

This also emerges from his own research.

The inhabitants of the martyred villages do not necessarily ask for reparations in the narrow economic sense of the term, as is often presented.

“They demand recognition and the initiation of dialogue between the two governments. This makes a huge qualitative difference. The fact that there is not even a dialogue on the issue between two countries that have such close ties leaves a bad impression (…) Very often in Greece and Germany the issue is approached only from its economic side, as a matter of economy and numbers. Through my own research it emerged mainly as a matter of recognizing crime and injustice».

He himself, born in 1987, having attended the German School of Thessaloniki and having studied in Germany, believes in honest Greek-German dialogue and summarizes: “Beyond scientific research, I also see the political difficulty of the issue for both countries from a personal perspective corner. I understand that any politician in Germany fears that with such a discussion the bag of Aeolus may be opened. On the other hand, I believe that no Greek government would want to create a legal precedent and expose Europe’s strongest economy to a reparations frenzy, from which perhaps Germany will never be able to extricate itself. Some issues are solved politically and not legally. I believe there is room for discussion precisely because they are friendly countries. Any movement or process of reconciliation and rapprochement should of course take into account the recipient of such a policy and especially the side of the victims. If this is done, I believe that in the future relations may become even closer.”