KANDANOS: German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier on Thursday asked for “forgiveness” for the crimes perpetrated by the Third Reich in Greece during a visit to a village in Crete razed by the Nazis.

“Today I would like to ask forgiveness on behalf of Germany,” the head of state said in Greek in an emotional speech at the village of Kandanos, which he called “a place of German shame”. “I ask forgiveness from you, the survivors and descendants, for the grave crimes that the Germans committed here,” he continued in German.

Located some 50 kilometres southwest of Chania, Kandanos was wiped out with the loss of some 180 lives on June 3, 1941.

Days earlier, its inhabitants had taken part in the Battle of Crete, a desperate effort by Allied forces to repel the airborne invasion by Nazi paratroopers in May 1941.

The first German head of state to visit Crete, Steinmeier was greeted by survivors of the massacre and a crowd, some of whom shouted slogans about Berlin’s continued refusal to pay wartime reparations.

There were shouts of “justice” and “the fight continues.” A group of survivors and descendants held a banner that read “Justice and Reparations” in front of a memorial to the Kandanos dead.

“We may be of a certain age (...) but no matter how many years go by, we (will continue) to demand fair reparations”, said 80-year-old Aristomenis Sigelakis, the resident of another Cretan village destroyed by soldiers of the Third Reich.

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2024