Chortiatis is a peripheral area located in municipality of Pylaia, lying at 600 metres altitude on the slopes of the Mount Chortiatis.Village was a place of tragic events that occured during the Second World War, that are known in the history as a ‘ Massacre of Chortiatis’.
It was a mass murder of 146 civilians by the Wehrmacht and Greek Nazi-collaborateurs, at the end of the occupation of Greece by the Axis powers.
Official statement says that German authorities decided to accomplish this cruel act against civilians after the capture of three German soldiers by the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) on mount Chortiatis.
Some other sources are claiming that the murder was done in revenge to poisoning the water supply by Greek partisans ( Germans were taking the water from the nearby river, that used to have special taste and was characterized by strong purity).
On 2 September of 1944 about twenty trucks with German soldiers and the paramilitary force, surrounded the village. They gathered all the people they found in the town square, and began to loot and burn houses down.
All 146 former inhabitants of Chortiatis were killed by machine guns, burnt alive, raped. During one day. 109 of them were women and girls. Homes were burned down.
The trip is organized within framework of project ‘Ignoring The Past is Condemning The Future’ and is a part of the research about II WW events in Thessaloniki. Anyone interested is welcome to join.
We will meet at 12 o’clock in Kamara and take bus No. 58 going to Panorama, and afterwards change for Bus NO. 61.
We’ll be visiting the village and the close mountain, taking photographs, making video, interviewing today Chortiatis residents and search for witnesses of that day.
The weather is supposed to be very nice and sunny.
Ignoring the past is condemning the future! 