To the Editor:
Upon lighting candles this morning, June 10, 2024, for the souls of the innocent victims that suffered the most heinous acts – the 218 deaths by bludgeoning of peaceful citizens from toddlers to the village priest in Distomo, Boeotia, in Central Greece – of the gruesome invading German Nazi military on June 10, 1944, I recalled the year 1967 and the shock I experienced during my trip there, of the eerie feelings of death frozen in time.
My father, Giorgios, who had battled on the Albanian Front in the winter of 1940, had taken our family to bear witness to the tragedy and to pay our respects to the victims, and their beloveds who lost them, and the enormous psychological burden put on the survivors without any resolution – many feeling they were without reasons to live out their remaining tenure on Earth due to this ugly, historic catastrophe.
June 10, is the 80th anniversary of this unnecessary inhumane German Reprisal. Last year was the 80th anniversary of the Kalavryta Reprisal on December 13, 1943, and prior to that, on August 29, 1943, another reprisal took place in the village of my birth, Domvraina, and nearby Thisbe and Prodromos in Boeotia, Greece.
Millions of innocent peoples have perished in time of war and the Greeks are no exception, but the anomaly of disrespect for their contributions to save Western Civilization in the past, not only from the hostile Persian invasions from the East, but this past century, repelling their Italian neighbor on October 28, 1940 – delivering the great ‘OXI’ from the Allies at the outset of World War II.
According to Winston Churchill this was the most heroic episode to be honored in the war, by acknowledging it to be the first allied victory, the Greeks defeating Mussolini’s fascist attack and simultaneously for a few years sustaining Greek sovereignty through the resistance.
The critical issue today is that we are the last generation to experience this bloody past. We are, at times, praised for our loyalty to our allies, but, regrettably, as of today, the Greek people have not received any WWII reparations! None at all!
The previous Greek Governments of Tsipras, the two Karamanlises, the two Papandreous, and the two Mitsotakises all have put up a legal request, but failed to get results, reparations, for their rightful pleadings as other victimized people have for WWII. Why is this, despite Greece having been on the right side of history?
Is it not the time, this year 2024, for the Greek Parliament to impose a sufficient tariff on German imports? At least 500 to 1,000 euro on German imported autos – VW, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, Opel, also not to exclude additional revenue for The Hellenic WWII Relief Fund, by issuing charges for daily airport landings by the airline Lufthansa as it arrives in Athens, Greece?
May all WWII victims’ souls rest in peace.
Respectfully,
Vassilis G. Tourikis
Birthplace Domvraina, Thivon, Ellas
Anacortes, WA