List of massacres in Greece

The following is a list of massacres that have occurred in Greece.

Ancient Greece

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Massacre of Argos 494 BC Argos 6,000 Sparta Argive survivors of the defeat at Sepeia burned alive in the sacred grove of Argos
Olynthus Massacre 479 BC Olynthus All inhabitants killed Persian Empire
Drabeskos massacre 465 BC Draviskos Athenian colonists Thracians Athenian colonists slain by Thracians.[1]
Massacre of Plataea 431 BC Plataea 150 Plataea 150 Theban POWs executed
Fall of Plataea 427 BC Plataea 200 Sparta 200 Plataean and Athenian POWs executed
First massacre of Corcyran oligarchs 427 BC Corcyra Unknown Corcyran popular party Corcyran oligarchs executed by the popular party
Mytilenean revolt 427 BC Mytilene 1,000 Athens Ringleaders of the rebellion executed
Helot Massacre 425 BC Peloponnese 2,000 Sparta 2,000 Helot slaves executed by Sparta
Second massacre of Corcyran oligarchs 425 BC Corcyra Unknown Corcyran popular party Corcyran oligarchs executed by the popular party
Destruction of Scione 421 BC Scione All of Scione's men killed Athens Men killed, women and children enslaved
Massacre of Hysiae 417 BC Hysiae All male citizens of Hysiae killed Sparta
Destruction of Melos 416 BC Milos All Melian men killed Athens Women and children enslaved.
Massacre of Mycalessus 413 BC Mycalessus All inhabitants of Mycalessus killed Thracian mercenaries of Athens
Corcyra Massacre 361 BC Corcyra Unknown Athens Many Corcyrans killed
Battle of Thebes December 335 BC Thebes 6,000 Macedonian Army The city was completely destroyed and 30,000 were enslaved
Argos Massacre 315 BC Argos 500 Macedonian Army 500 Argive senators burned alive
Orchomenus Massacre 313 BC Orchomenus Unknown Oligarchs supported by Macedon
Messene Massacre 213 BC Messene 200 Demagogues supported by Macedon 200 magistrates and their supporters killed
Maroneia Massacre 184 BC Maroneia Unknown Macedonian Army Many Maronites killed
Aetolian massacre 167 BC Aetolia 550 Roman Army 550 Aetolian leaders killed by Roman soldiers.
Destruction of Corinth 146 BC Corinth All Corinthian men killed Roman Army Complete destruction of the city. Population partly massacred, partly enslaved.
Asiatic Vespers 88 BC Asia (Roman province) 80,000–150,000 Kingdom of Pontus led by Mithridates VI Romans and Italians killed. Served as a casus belli for the First Mithridatic War.
Sack of Athens 86 BC Athens Unknown Roman Army Population partly massacred and large parts of the city burned down.

Roman or Byzantine Empire

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Massacre of Thessalonica April 390 Thessalonica 7,000 Late Roman army After orders of Emperor Theodosius I
N/A 1171 Constantinople, Genoese quarter Unknown Venetians Genoese victims. This was not the first time Venetian merchants had gotten out of hand. Given much freedom and power in their trade with the Empire, they had misused this freedom. In response, Emperor Manuel I cracked down on the Venetian merchants and this led to the Byzantine-Venetian war.
Massacre of the Latins April 1182 Constantinople Unknown Usurper Andronikos Komnenos and a mob of his Greek, Eastern Christian supporters Massacre of Latins/Roman Catholics
Sack of Thessalonica (1185) 9–24 August 1185 Thessalonica 7,000 Normans of the Kingdom of Sicily
Sack of Constantinople (1204) Fourth Crusade 1204 Constantinople Unknown Catholics/Crusaders Orthodox Christians, Constantinopolitans
Venetian-Genoese War 1296 Constantinople Unknown Genoese Venetian civilian victims

Ottoman Greece

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Ottoman conquest of Lesbos 15 September 1461 Lesbos 300 Ottoman Army 300 Italian soldiers massacred by Ottoman Army under Mehmed II.
Peloponnese massacres March 1770 Peloponnese, mainly Tripolitsa 3,000-10,000 (plus 20,000 refugees) Albanian irregulars After the failure of Orlov Revolt.
Preveza massacre October 1798 Preveza Unknown Albanian Muslims Complete destruction, devastation of the city. The biographer of Ali Pasha, Spyros Aravantinos, states that before the massacre, the population of Preveza was 16,000, while according to the traveler Henry Holland who visited the town in 1812 – fourteen years after the event – there were only 4,000 souls.[2]

Greek War of Independence (1821–1832)

Further information: Massacres during the Greek Revolution
Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Constantinople massacre April–July 1821 Occurred in Constantinople, but contemporary pogrom activities spread in parts of present-day Greece (Kos, Rhodes)[3] unknown Ottoman government
Navarino massacre 19 August 1821 Pylos 3,000 Greek irregular forces
Massacre of Samothrace 1 September 1821 Samothrace 1,000[4] Ottoman army Complete destruction, devastation of the island.
Tripolitsa massacre 23 September 1821 Tripolis 6,000-15,000 Greek irregular forces
Chios massacre March 1822 Chios 20,000–52,000 Ottoman government
Naousa massacre 13 April 1822 Naousa 2,000 Ottoman army
Kasos massacre 7 June 1824 Kasos 500 Ottoman-Egyptian army Some 2000 women and children taken and sold into slavery
Destruction of Psara July 1824 Psara 7,000 Ottoman army
Third Siege of Messolonghi April 1826 Messolonghi 8,000 Ottoman/Egyptian army Messolonghi received the honorary title of Hiera Polis (Sacred City) by the Greek state.

First Balkan War

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Servia massacre 10 October 1912 Servia, Greece 117 Ottoman Army

Second Balkan War

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Doxato Massacre 30 June 1913 Doxato 500[5] Turkish irregulars[6][7]
Kilkis Massacre 4 July 1913 Kilkis 74 [8][9]

World War II

Name Date Location Deaths Perpetrators Notes
Massacre of Kondomari 2 June 1941 Crete 60 German paratroopers
Alikianos executions 2 June 1941 and 1 August 1941 Western Crete 180+ German paratroopers
Razing of Kandanos 3 June 1941 Western Crete 180 German Army troops
Doxato massacre 28–29 September 1941 Doxato 200+ Bulgarian Royal Army
Domenikon massacre 16–17 February 1943 Domenikon 150 Italian Royal Army
Feneos executions March 1943-June 1944 Feneos no less than 1,071 mainly OPLA The local monastery functioned as a concentration camp.
Viannos massacres 14–16 September 1943 Viannos and Ierapetra regions 500+ Generalleutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller leading the 65th Regiment of the 22nd Luftlande Infanterie-Division
Massacre of the Acqui Division 21 September 1943 Kefalonia, Greece 5,000 German Army troops Dramatized in the film Captain Corelli's Mandolin.
Kommeno massacre 16 August 1943 Kommeno 317 German Army troops
Paramythia executions 19–29 September 1943 Paramythia 201 Cham Albanian paramilitary/German Army troops
Lyngiades massacre 3 October 1943 Ligiades 83 German Army troops
Kallikratis executions 8 October 1943 Kallikratis 30+ Jagdkommando Schubert/German Army troops
Massacre of Kalavryta 13 December 1943 Kalavryta 693 German Army troops
Drakeia massacre 18 December 1943 Drakeia, Mount Pelion 115 4th SS Polizei Panzergrenadier Division
5/42 Evzone Regiment dissolution 17 April 1944 Phocis, Central Greece 200+ ELAS troops Colonel Dimitrios Psarros also executed.
Pyrgoi (formerly Katranitsa) massacre 23 to 24 April 1944 Pyrgoi 327 German Army troops [10]
Executions of Kaisariani 1 May 1944 Kaisariani 200 German Army troops
Distomo massacre 10 June 1944 Distomo 218 German SS troops
Massacre of Pikermi 21 July 1944 Pikermi 54 German Army troops [11]
Massacres of Mousiotitsa 25 July 1943 Mousiotitsa 153 German Army troops
Executions of Kokkinia 17 August 1944 Kokkinia 300+ German Army troops/Security Battalions
Skourvoula executions 14 August 1944 Skourvoula, Crete 36+ German Army troops
Holocaust of Kedros 22 August 1944 Amari Valley 164 German Army troops
Malathyros executions 28 August 1944 Malathyros, Crete 61 German Army troops
The Massacre of Chortiatis 2 September 1944 Chortiatis 146 German Army troops Perpetrated by Friedrich Schubert
Executions of Meligalas 16 September 1944 Meligalas c.1,000 ELAS troops
Aigaleo massacre 29 September 1944 Aigaleo 65 official number,[12] estimates up to 150[13] German Army troops
Executions of ULEN/Peristeri December 1944 (Dekemvriana) Athens 3,000+ (unknown exactly) OPLA, other minor communist groups

References

  1. ^ "The Princeton Encyclopedia of Classical Sites, DRABESKOS (Sdravik) Macedonia, Greece". Perseus Digital Library (in Latin). Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  2. ^ Παπασταύρος, Αναστάσιος Ι. (2013). "Ο ΧΑΛΑΣΜΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΠΡΕΒΕΖΑΣ" (PDF). Αλή Πασάς – από λήσταρχος ηγεμόνας (in Greek). Apeirotan. p. 106.
  3. ^ Clair, William St. (2008). That Greece might still be free (New ed., rev., corr., and with additional ill. and updated bibliography. ed.). Cambridge: Open Book Publ. pp. 4–5. ISBN 9781906924003. massacred+1821+constantinople+greeks.
  4. ^ Charles Vellay, L'irrédentisme hellénique, 1913, 329 pages. page 131: [1]
  5. ^ Kramer, Alan (2008). Dynamic of Destruction: Culture and Mass Killing in the First World War. OUP Oxford. ISBN 9780191580116.
  6. ^ Report of the International Commission to Inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars, published by the Endowment Washington, D.C. 1914, p. 83 "While emphasizing the heavy responsibility which falls on the Bulgarian officers for this catastrophe, we do not hesitate to conclude that the massacre at Doxato was a Turkish and not a Bulgarian atrocity."
  7. ^ The Nation and Athenæum. Nation Publishing Company Limited. 1914.
  8. ^ "<italic>Report of the International Commission to inquire into the Causes and Conduct of the Balkan Wars</italic>. [Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Division of Intercourse and Education, Publication No. 4.] (Washington, D. C.: Published by the Endowment. 1914. Pp. 413.)". The American Historical Review. April 1915. doi:10.1086/ahr/20.3.638. ISSN 1937-5239.
  9. ^ Hooton, E. R. (2014). Prelude to the First World War: The Balkan Wars 1912-1913. Fonthill Media.
  10. ^ Gkaidatzis, Rafail (23 April 2024). "Η Σφαγή των Πύργων: 80 χρόνια από το δεύτερο μεγαλύτερο ολοκαύτωμα των Ναζί στην Ελλάδα - Parallaxi Magazine". parallaximag.gr (in gr). Retrieved 13 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  11. ^ "21 Ιουλίου 1944: H θυσία των "54" στο Πικέρμι - ertnews.gr". ertnews.gr (in gr). 21 July 2024. Retrieved 13 December 2024.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link)
  12. ^ Δεδούση, Μαρία (2022-09-29). "Σαν σήμερα: 29 Σεπτεμβρίου - Το Ολοκαύτωμα του Αιγάλεω, ακόμη μια ατιμώρητη σφαγή αθώων". CNN.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2022-10-03.
  13. ^ "Τα θύματα εκ της βαρβάρου επιδρομής εις το Πυριτιδοποιείον – Οι νεκροί ανέρχονται εις εκατόν πενήντα". efimeris.nlg.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2022-10-03.