“Every summer, in most of the villages of Ioannina, we kneel reverently at the small cenotaphs to honor our people, our friends, our relatives and our fellow villagers, who became the victims of Nazi barbarity.

They were murdered in cold blood, that black summer of 1943, by the German commandos, of the 1st mountain, division, mountain commandos, “Edelweiss” of the German army of the “Wehrmacht”.

These are the words of Gianniotis historical researcher Alekos Raptis, who for 10 years has been engaged in the search for the dramatic events that plunged Epirus into mourning and shook Epirus.

This year marks 80 years, with the memories of those, at least, still alive and who experienced the atrocity through their children’s eyes, not fading.

The summer of Nazi atrocity

“Zagorochoria experienced absolute destruction from July 1943 to October 12, 1944, when the Germans left the country. Burnt houses, destroyed properties, homeless, frightened and chased residents in the mountains, villages that lost their identity. At least 89 victims and almost 2,000 buildings destroyed including houses, schools, churches, farm buildings. The black record of the German advance in our region is revealing of the magnitude of the atrocity” Dr. of Philosophy Angeliki Angeli from Miliotades of Eastern Zagori says to APE-MPE.

The burnt, by the Nazis, church of Agios Nikolaos Asprangelos and the tins of the houses that surround us are the indelible signs of an unrepeatable barbarism experienced by Zagori, points out Mrs. Angeli.

The 1st mountain division “Edelweiss”, Alekos Raptis explains to APE-MPE, was one of the most criminal military formations of Nazi Germany during the Second World War and continues:

“In 2008 the late German historical researcher and my good friend, Herman Frank Meyer and author of the book “Blutiges Edelweiss”, reports among other things about the 1st Mountain Division “Edelweiss”, on the Cologne radio station:

“ …during the campaign in the Soviet Union 1941, commandos used to kill. They did this every day for a year and a half. I estimate that they had killed about 60,000 people and when they were transferred first to Montenegro – Serbia and then to Greece – Epirus, the officers and soldiers had become so brutal that they had no problem committing these bloody acts…”

As to why the Germans target the villages with such fury, Angeliki Angeli looks back at historical testimonies and records and gives an answer.

“From the spring of 1943, Zagori became a nucleus of the national resistance. Specifically, in Asprangelos and Greveniti, guerrilla resistance bodies are developing, mainly of EAM-ELAS. In Greveniti there is also a hospital for the rebels. The “Edelweiss” mountain raiding division is ordered to liquidate these groups and apply the logic of retaliation, with multiple casualties for each loss of the occupying troops. The guideline, as recorded by its residents, is clear: “All armed men must in principle be executed on the spot. Villages from which shots have been fired or armed men have returned must be destroyed and the male population of those villages shot. Elsewhere, all men capable of bearing arms from 16-60 should be rounded up and sent to Ioannina.” With a series of operations with the code names “Panther”, “Saini”, “Chrysaetos”, the occupying forces are setting fire to the villages of Zagori, murdering innocents, and sowing fear without any mercy”.

The story of Frixos Giova about the burning of Asprangeli on July 15, 1943 is typical: “…We saw the smoke rising over the high mountain that hid the village. They were burning us. What will become of us without a home in the corruption of the world? We holed up in ravine caves and filled them with groans and obituaries…What’s left? My mind did not go to tomorrow, to survival, life stopped at yesterday. I was walking like a lost body, say you saw a scarecrow, because I knew what I would find. …. As I imagined it was. Of the 130 castle houses, they burned 112 plus the school, the church and the Monastery. Two old women who were left, were found half-crazy and half-baked, and outside the village the corpses of a man and wife who became the target of the killers…»

In Konitsa, the martyred villages of Aidonohori and Kefalovryso experienced the horror of German Nazi brutality.

Aidonohori, July 9, 1943

Alekos Raptis records oral testimonies of elderly people

On July 8, 1943, most of the inhabitants were in the plain, some to harvest and others to dig their corn and others to irrigate their fields.
Around 4 pm, two heavy artillery explosions are heard in Melissopetra.

After about 5 minutes, other explosions are heard at the “Canales” location, on the side of the village, while at the same time, a German plane was flying, at a low altitude, between Merziani and Prophet Ilias.

Some of the residents ran to their homes to take a few of their possessions, while the rest fled through the ravines towards the Vortopi mountain to save themselves and hid in the cave at the “Kolia Pesti” location.

On that day, the German commandos, of the “Edelweiss”, were coming, from the northeast and another platoon, from the northwest, at the “Agios Dimitrios” position. On their way, they burned a hut and a house. The next day, July 9, 1943, German commandos invaded the village.

Ziakou Chariklos and her 16-year-old daughter Marianthi ran scared and hid in the basement of their house. But they were followed by two German commandos, of “Edelweiss”.

The two women were trembling from the fear that had overtaken them and had knelt down on the ground, in the basement. The mother was holding the girl close to her to protect her, the girl was not 16 years old, when the German entered with the pistol in his hand. He pointed the pistol at the mother’s head and fired once. The gun jammed, he cocked it again, fired again and a 2nd time and the gun jammed again. The German turned furiously towards the wall and threw the pistol cursing. The two women stood stunned for a while, stunned as if forever.

The German commandos of “Edelweiss”, burned all the houses of the village of Aidonochori and executed or burned alive, inside their houses, 22 inhabitants of the village, while they also committed 5 rapes of women.

Kefalovrisos, July 10, 1943

On July 9, 1943, the commander of the 98th regiment, colonel Josef Zalmiger, orders 9 companies of the 2nd battalion of the 98th regiment of the 1st mountain division “Edelweiss” to control the road from Leskoviki to Aidonohori.

On the following day, July 10, 1943, Lieutenant Michael Peisiger, commander of the 6th company of the 2nd battalion of the 98th regiment, implements the order that provides: “Clearing and guarding the advance road to Ioannina”, which actually means the implementation of the “scorched earth” tactic. which has to do with killing civilians and burning houses.

In Kefalovrysos, the people are in a terrible state of panic as they have been informed since June 6, 1943 about the carnage caused by the German mountain commandos “Edelweiss”, in Albanian villages near the border.

Having no other choice, the residents of the village of Kefalovryso decided to leave the village at dawn on July 10, 1943 and hide in the valleys of Nemertsika, in order to save their families and their meager lives.

On the morning of July 10, 1943, the first German commandos of the “Edelweiss”, are across Vassiliko and start burning some houses in the village.
The fate of Kefalovrysos is now predetermined. The 6th company, commanded by lieutenant Michael Peisiger, enters the village and deploys in 3 groups.
The German commandos begin to take as hostages those who have remained in the village and those they meet in front of them.

Some villagers, who try to break the bonds, are executed on the spot, while some others are luckier and manage to be saved.

The tragedy culminates in the next few hours, as the Germans of “Edelweiss” imprison the unfortunate residents they have captured, inside 2 houses, and then set fire to them and burn them alive.

In the following hours, the village of Kefalovryso is engulfed in flames, German commandos of the “Edelweiss”, set fire to the houses with incendiary gunpowder, while indulging in looting and looting of everything.

In total, they executed or burned alive in their houses 22 inhabitants of the village, while they also committed rape of a girl.

In the prefecture of Ioannina, according to Alekos Raptis, during the period from July 7, 1943, until November 7, 1943, the German “Edelweiss” commandos carried out executions and murders of civilians, raped girls and women, burned houses, entire villages and settlements, destroyed infrastructure, looted food, clothing, on furniture and utensils, while they carried out abductions of small and large animals.

The Municipality of Zagori counts 15 recognized martyr villages, where events of honor and memory are held every year. Mrs. Angeli points out, speaking to APE-MBE, that “this minimal recognition of the martyred villages does not justify the State’s oblivion towards the claim of German reparations and the renunciation of its responsibility for the development of this place”.
In total during the period 1943 – 1944, the 1st Mountain Division “Edelweiss”, destroyed and burned 342 villages, and 6,804 houses while murdering and executing over 2,660 innocent civilians. The most violent Nazi atrocities were those that drowned in blood and fire, Lygiades, Kommeno of ΄Arta, and Musiotitsa in Dodoni.

M. Zora