Sights
Coordinates: 35.327427, 23.740930

Kandanos War Memorial

On June 3rd, 1941, the German conquerors of Crete committed one of the most atrocious crimes of the Second World War. Due to the resistance of the inhabitants of Kandanos and their participation in the Battle of Crete, Commander Kurt Student of the Parachute Corps ordered the razing of the village. The German forces executed the approximately 180 inhabitants of the village, slaughtered their domestic animals and burned all the buildings to the ground. After completing the total destruction of the village, the Germans displayed large plaques on which they wrote in German and Greek the reasons for their exemplary punishment of Kandanos. Today, in the central square of the village, marble copies of these signs have been erected in memory of the atrocities of the conquerors, but also as a tribute to the heroic victims; on either side, two more inscriptions inform visitors about the time of the destruction.

Main Bibliography

 

  • Bury John – Meiggs Russell, A History of Greece. To the Death of Alexander the Great, Translated by Rouli Tataki, K. N. Petropoulos, Anna Papadimitriou - Grammenou, Konstantinos Buraselis, Angelos Matthaiou, Athens 2011. 
  • Αλεξάνδρου, μτφρ. Ρούλη Τατάκη, Κ. Ν. Πετρόπουλος, Άννα Παπαδημητρίου Γραμμένου,
  • Κωνσταντίνος Μπουραζέλης, Άγγελος Ματθαίου, Αθήνα 2011.
  • Lefèvre François, Histoire Du Monde Grec Antique, Translated by Anastasia Kefala, Mina Kardamitsa, Athens 2016.
  • Καρδαμίτσα, Αθήνα 2016.
  • Antonopoulou Zeta, Τα Γλυπτά της Αθήνας: Υπαίθρια Γλυπτική 1834-2004, Athens 2003.
  • Karaiskou Vicky, Νεοελληνική Γλυπτική: Ματιές και αναγνώσεις, Athens 2011.
  • Pavlopoulos Dimitris, Ζητήματα Νεοελληνικής Γλυπτικής, Athens 1998.
  • Γλυπτά, Αθήνα 2020.
  • Pavlopoulos Dimitris, Από τον Ιερό Λόχο στον Κωνσταντίνο ΙΒ’: Νεότερα Αθηναϊκά Γλυπτά, Athens 2020.

 

Main Webliography


http://www.athenssculptures.com
https://explore.cure-project.gr
https://www.thisiscrete.gr/gr/historical-monuments
https://www.wikipedia.org

Informations

Additional

Creator: Municipality of Kandanos
Material: Marble
Location: Kandanos Square
Type: Memorial
Subject: World War II, Battle of Crete, German Occupation
Access: Accessible all 24 hours
Accessible to people with disabilities

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