Memorial for the Kidnapping of German General H. Kreipe

On April 26th, 1944, the German General Heinrich Kreipe was driving his military vehicle from Archanes, where the Wehrmacht Headquarters were located, to Villa Ariadne, where he was living. At the junction where the memorial stands today, British officers Patrick Leigh Fermor and William Stanley Moss were waiting for him. Disguised as German soldiers, they kidnapped him and led him through 22 guarded barricades. The risky kidnapping lasted 19 whole days, during which the Allies transferred Kreipe over the mountains to the south of the island with the help of the Greek resistance. On May 14th, a small British high-speed vessel picked up the prisoner from Peristeres beach and took him to Egypt, where he was imprisoned and interrogated. The two marble columns standing in front of the monument are engraved, in Greek and English, with the names of the Greeks and Allies who participated in the kidnapping.