Paramythia executions
1943 massacre of Greek civilians
The Paramythia executions, also known as the Paramythia massacre, was a mass execution and war crime perpetrated by members of Nazi Germany's 1st Mountain Division and the collaborating Muslim Cham Albanian militia in the town of Paramythia and its surrounding region, during the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II. Over the period of 19–29 September 1943, 201 Greek civilians were murdered – primarily the Greek community's representatives and intellectuals – and 19 municipalities in the region of Paramythia were destroyed. After the end of the war and the defeat of the Axis powers, a series of war crime trials condemned these actions, however no defendants were ever arrested and brought to trial, as they already had fled into Albania. The perpetrators were tried in absentia. At the Hostages Trial in Nuremberg in 1948, the American judges reached the decision that the executions of Paramythia were "plain murders".
Background
The town of Paramythia was the administrative center of the Prefecture of Thesprotia in Greece before World War II. When the war broke out, it had a mixed population of approximately 3,000 Christian Greeks and 3,000 Muslim Cham Albanians.
Fascist Italian propaganda had adopted a pro-Albanian approach, promising that the region would become part of Great Albania when the war ended. As a result, the Muslim Cham community collaborated in large parts with the occupying Italian and later the German troops of the Axis powers, committing a number of crimes against the unarmed local Greek population. The occupation forces installed a local Cham administration in the town of Paramythia, with Xhemil Dino as local administrator of Thesprotia and as a representative of the Albanian government. Apart from the local Cham administration (Këshilla) and militia, a paramilitary organization named 'Kosla' was operating from July 1942.
Anti-resistance activity and first wave of executions
Due to increased guerilla activity in the surrounding region, in September 1943, German Lt.
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