in detail
The old schoolhouse is near the second–largest square in the village.
On 13 December 1943, German troops surrounded the village of Kalavryta. The entire population was forced to assemble on the village square. All male inhabitants older than twelve were separated from the others, taken to a nearby hill and machine–gunned to death. In the meantime, the soldiers had herded the women and children into the schoolhouse and the church. In all, the German troops killed over 500 people in Kalavryta on that day.
The old schoolhouse is to be turned into a »Museum of the Holocaust of Kalavryta« with European Union support. In this case, the word »holocaust« refers to the crime against the local population. Until the present, however, only the restoration of the outside walls has made progress, while the actual museum is still in the planning stages.
There is a memorial in the schoolyard: a sculpture of a grieving woman dragging the body of her murdered husband to burial while her two children watch her.
On 13 December 1943, German troops killed over 500 people in Kalavryta. First the women and children were locked in the schoolhouse and the church, then the men were taken to a nearby hill and machinegunned to death. The old schoolhouse of the village of Kalavryta in the northern Peloponnese is to be turned into a »Museum of the Holocaust of Kalavryta«.
13 December 1943
The shooting of all the male inhabitants of Kalavryta over the age of twelve on a hill near the village. The burning of women and children in the church and the school. 1,104 victims in all. Afterwards, the complete destruction of the village.
From the 1940s to the 1960s
Creation of memorial graves on the hill and in the town cemetery.
1967
Establishment of the memorial (called 'Topos Thysias').
2000–2006 (planned)
Restoration of the old schoolhouse and creation of a 'Museum of the Holocaust of Kalavryta' within it.
Kalavryta, 2004, The right wing of the old schoolhouse, in which a Holocaust museum is to be set up, Alexios–Nikolaos Menexiadis.
Kalavryta, 2004, Sculpture in the garden of the old schoolhouse, Alexios–Nikolaos Menexiadis.
