Let’s Talk About the Bloodiest Nazi Massacre in Greece

The Holocaust. The Sichuan Massacre. The Armenian Genocide. Mass killings the world is recognizant of.

‘With journalism, every rock that used to be unturned is now being flipped, lit, and put on TV’.

The media is renowned for comparing narratives on polarising issues and cultivating a biased opinion from it, begging the question of journalism’s role in a nation. We, as a society, are prey to the media’s claws and consume each article, each show, each podcast served to us; that is how opinions are formed. That is how news is spread. We have journalists to raise awareness about the “under-the-table” activities of leaders and of countries. Whether it be the wiping out of Uyghur Muslims or the brutal treatment of Palestinian citizens. However, there is a flaw in the mechanism. How can we educate if we’re unaware ourselves? I’m not talking about ignorance, I'm talking about the lack of attention. The lack of a spotlight, or even minuscule media interest.

Kalavryta.

What is Kalavryta? Its a town in the Eastern-Central part of Achaea where the bloodiest Nazi massacre in Greece occurred. A massacre that never caught the focus of media interest. A massacre that wrecked the town. A massacre that nearly exterminated the male population within it. This is what I mean when I say there’s a “flaw in the mechanism”. Quite an understatement.

The ravages and remnants of body parts sprawled across the streets in pools of blood that morphed into rivers haunts the town's streets. There’s a reason I’m not holding back on the gruesome and grim details. Hearing about an incident is one thing, seeing it unfold in your mind is another. With over 500 people executed, and a town burnt to the ground, this massacre leaves a permanent stain on our history. On December 13th, the citizens of the municipality were called to the elementary school, where the men were separated from the women and children. The men were taken to a field, whilst the women and children stayed back. They then watched the elementary school being burnt, with their families still inside.

Just as they were beginning to fathom the horrors that they were witnessing, all the men were machine-gunned down. On that tragic day, the streets of Kalavryta ran the blood of 499 people with only 13 men managing to escape without the Germans realising. With around 677 victims of the fire, the women and children were, fortunately, able to escape the flames that destroyed their municipality and over 1,000 buildings in it. Rumor has it, an Austrian soldier left a door open so the people in the elementary school could flee. Today, a museum lies where the elementary school once was and in 2000, the then-President of Germany visited the memorial site, ‘expressing his shame and sorrow for the tragedy’.

The Kalavryta Massacre is not the sole mass killing unknown to the world. There are so many more that we have not heard of. That never hit the headlines or had anyone bat an eye towards them. These are massacres written off by the media because they’re not deemed “interesting” enough. Let’s uncover the obscurities of the world. Let’s do our part. Let’s talk about them.

• Veda Varma (11A)