Mothers and wives of Nazi massacre victims honored

Kalavryta, a town in the mountains of the northern Peloponnese and the site of one of the worst massacres of World War II, is honoring the women who survived it on Monday.

The annual commemoration of the “Mothers of Kalavryta” is a church service held on the eve of the August 15th celebration of the mother of Christ, one of the biggest events on the Greek Orthodox calendar and a public holiday.

The service at the Church of the Dormition of the Virgin (Koimiseis tis Theotokou) remembers the near extermination of the town’s entire male population by the Nazis on December 13, 1943. The day of remembrance was legislated in 1996 by the Municipality of Kalavrya.