With the detailed recording of the German military and paramilitary units, it illuminates unknown sides of the Occupation.

The research project “Database of German military and paramilitary units in Greece 1941-1944/45”, architected by Valentin Schneider, records the German military and paramilitary units stationed occasionally or long-term and operating in Greece between April 1941 and October 1944, in collaboration with the National Research Foundation and full funding from the Hellenic-German Fund for the Future.

A dive into the German military archives

Through the 350,000 pages of German military archives, the team of Valentin Schneider and the Institute of Historical Research sheds light on the known and unknown crimes of the Germans as well as the history of everyday life during the Occupation in Greece. “There is a difficulty in reading some documents in old handwriting. And in the interpretation because the military command does not always describe things in simple words”, points out Snyder. This is how he searches for the national history of the Occupation, highlighting the local history. “The story of the family, the grandmother and the grandfather is combined with the official military data in a village in Crete or on the Metaxas line. We avoid the idea of ​​the German army as a generality, we follow the units,” says the German historian.

In three and a half years there is a huge circulation of units. “The 117th Assault Division located in some villages of the Peloponnese, a few pages later is the protagonist in the massacre of Kalavryta,” says Snyder. German casualty tables critically complement military diaries and combine with demographic sources. This shows the ratio of the military forces to the general population and the impact of these units on the everyday life of the Greeks through the requisitioning of houses and the confiscation of food, the imposition of forced labor and other arbitrary measures. “The information is tabulated and then loaded into an interactive GIS map where one can study it as a whole,” Snyder explains.

Unknown aspects of the German occupation

“There are testimonies showing the Germans behaving well, playing with children, while in the archives we see that three days ago they were involved in a massacre in another village,” observes Snyder. Each sub-unit, each company, has its own course in the war. Units from the Russian front that first return to Germany but are then sent to France and then to Greece. “To simply say that since they are Germans, this is how they behave, does not work as a historical explanation for me. For example, the order for the execution of the inhabitants of Milos on February 23, 1943, was made by the commander of the island, who was a Kriegsmarine (Navy) officer, responsible some time ago for the deportation of the Jews to a port in Lithuania”. The military units have a history before and after their passage in occupied Greece.

“We explore how ordinary citizens, who were good fathers, good professionals, become murderers, and they kill civilians in Greece,” says Snyder. Units with a history of violence come from other parts of Europe and commit war crimes in Greece. “60% were non-combat units. Many Germans may have returned saying that things were calm during the Occupation in Greece,” says Snyder.

“It is like a cloud for some families of descendants of German soldiers who know that their grandfather was in Greece. They have letters in the warehouse and they don’t know exactly what happened and they fear the worst,” says Snyder, continuing: “This can help the descendants of German soldiers face history together with Greek descendants of victims.” Some facts are not known. “When I talk about the Koropi massacre in 1944, most people have not heard of it. The massacres of Distomos, of Kalavryta, the destruction of Kantanou are well known. Of Kommenos, however, not so much to the same extent. It’s not so much about the availability of the files, but how they become known,” he says. To his surprise, he finds in the research information about the SS operations during the Occupation that they took from the Old Heraklion of Attica, the small community of German descendants of the Bavarians of the time of Otto, repatriating them to Germany, to preserve the propaganda purity of blood, inspired by Himmler. “With knowledge that will be open to everyone, we can understand the events of the Occupation, but also the post-war years,” Snyder points out.

A strong legacy for the future

When the investigation is completed, we will know about every day of the German occupation, where every unit of the German army was and about every small battle in every village. “My grandfather was an important person in the resistance, in ELAS. I was moved when I found an operation, of reconnaissance battalion 116, in his village, Lagadia in Mountainous Arcadia, and fell into battles where my grandfather participated,” says Elli Strogyli, historian of the project team, speaking to Deutsche Welle, happy that such a tool will be accessible to all.

“This story will never disappear, it is part of the national identity narrative of many places in Europe. It shows the darkest side of man. It is important to build a Europe that openly faces this history”, emphasizes Snyder, continuing: “I also sometimes need to close my office, not to see all the books that talk about these ugliness. But I feel that I have an extra responsibility as a young German, to talk about this history and bring people together.”

For more information the page of the research project Database of German military and paramilitary units in Greece 1941-1944/45 on facebook