From info@caratzas.com Fri Sep 7 23:55:26 2001 Received: from mxu102.u.washington.edu (mxu102.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.15]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.11.2+UW01.01/8.11.2+UW01.04) with ESMTP id f886tM081578 for ; Fri, 7 Sep 2001 23:55:22 -0700 Received: from mxu2.u.washington.edu (mxu2.u.washington.edu [140.142.32.9]) by mxu102.u.washington.edu (8.11.6+UW01.08/8.11.6+UW01.08) with SMTP id f886tME24772 for ; Fri, 7 Sep 2001 23:55:22 -0700 Received: FROM thor.hol.gr BY mxu2.u.washington.edu ; Fri Sep 07 23:55:21 2001 -0700 Received: (qmail 18435 invoked from network); 8 Sep 2001 04:32:30 -0000 Received: from isis.hol.gr (194.30.192.21) by thor.hol.gr with SMTP; 8 Sep 2001 04:32:30 -0000 Received: (qmail 11310 invoked from network); 8 Sep 2001 06:54:56 -0000 Received: from vdp064.ath11.cas.hol.gr (HELO caratzas.com) (195.97.127.65) by isis.hol.gr with SMTP; 8 Sep 2001 06:54:56 -0000 Message-ID: <3B99C0D3.DDED54C4@caratzas.com> Date: Sat, 08 Sep 2001 09:55:13 +0300 From: "J. P. E. Philobiblos" Reply-To: info@caratzas.com X-Mailer: Mozilla 4.7 (Macintosh; I; PPC) X-Accept-Language: el,en,de,fr,it,da,tr MIME-Version: 1.0 To: classics@u.washington.edu Subject: DAI Issue References: <433a8f435144.435144433a8f@homemail.nyu.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; x-mac-type="54455854"; x-mac-creator="4D4F5353" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Diana Wright wrote: > > > > > > Diana Wright wrote: > > > > > There were other German massacres at other Greek towns (such as > > > Kalavrita), none of which has seen fit to act in this manner. > > Distomo> has long made great publicity of its massacre -- "Come > > See the Site of > > > the Massacre!" signs along the road. > > > > Is that supposed to impugn the actions of the descendants of the > > Distomomassacre? Different people react differently to disaster. > > The Kalavryta > > people recently invited German children in a quintessential > > Christian act > > of forgiveness of the crimes committed by their parents. The Distomo > > people chose another venue for the recognition of the suffering > > inflictedon their forebears by German war criminals. I cannot > > judge which is the > > better course. The common issue linking the Distomo, Kalavryta and > > manyother Greek villages victimized by the Nazis is the senseless and > > criminal slaughter of their inhabitants by the German troops. I do not > > think you mean to suggest that the Distomo people somehow are to be > > blamed for demanding what they see as the imposition of some kind of > > justice, even if that is fifty-six years later. > > If you use the standards of Christian judgment, yes, you can decide > which is the better course. The fact remains that the atrocities committed by the Germans in Distomo and elsewhere had, inter alia, very real economic consequences. It is not unreasonable to ask for recompense. > If you think cash is equal to justice, then you have to make another set > of decisions: Should the Greeks sue the Spanish for the Catalans > depredations? Should Monemvasia sue Crete > for the hundreds of recorded kidnappings for slaves? Should the Turks > sue the Greeks for the massacres of Turks at Livadia and Tripolis? Should > the Albanians sue Nauplion for the massacre at Nauplion? > How do you decide where to stop? There are survivors of the Distomo massacre still alive, as are their children and those of the victims. These were directly affected by the war crimes committed by the German troops, hence covered by laws that apply to the specific case. I saw interviews with survivors in which it was obvious that, even 56 years laters, the pain and suffering were very real. The victims thankfully had recourse to a court and presented witnesses and evidence of specific crimes. I doubt that one can provide eyewitnesses for any of the cases you cite or any surviving victims for that matter. I do not think the law holding states accountable for crimes and giving recourse to those who have suffered and their immediate relatives is unreasonable. Aristide Caratzas .