Municipal Museum of the Kalavrytan Holocaust Open: Tuesday – Sunday, 09:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. Admission prices regular: 3,00 € per person Groups: 2,00 € Students, persons over 65 and children between 12 and 18 years: 1,50 € School excursions: 0,50 € Free admission for all guests on December 12, December 13 and May 18 (International Museum Day) The museum is housed in the building of the old Elementary School (A. Syngrou 1-5). In this symbolic building the inhabitants of Kalavryta experienced and suffered the brutality of the Nazi atrocities: after being deceitfully gathered there, the families were inhumanely divided, the men over 14 were taken away from their families and the women and children were mercilessly encaged in the school from which they violently managed to break out later.          1st ROOM: Prewar Kalavryta n the old days our small town with the beautiful square the coffee shops and the barber shops and the offices and the water fountains, had a lot of people! Officials and traders lawyers and doctors shoemakers and artisans small barbers in those good old times! And every Sunday, everyone was in the church, the pupils at schools. And then in the coffee shops, Chamouzas is at the square and the band is playing! And I think everyone waits for the night to come and the little train to arrive and the engine is driven by Nikandros with the little goat-beard ... And all this in those times! And there were lots of joys: The best man’s little place the little tavern of Pachis and the store of Gazis which has “a bit of all!” But disaster got to it! - G. Koutsouris          2nd ROOM: Occupation – “Operation Kalavrita” As everywhere, Kalavrita has been under the Axis stranglehold since May 1941. However, the inhabitants’ spirit is high and their conviction of the final victory is strong. This is 1943. The axis Rome-Berlin-Tokyo has suffered merciless blows from the East and the West and is in a very difficult position. However, the whole of Europe suffers under Nazi Germany which is infuriated by the multiple blows it has taken. This, besides the extensive war fronts, has to deal with the national resistance that develops in the occupied countries and struggles to maintain hold of large tracts of hostile nations. Adolf Hitler and his collaborators activate their ‘secret weapon’, the ultimate advantage: organized terrorism brought about by ruthless man slaughter, looting and burning and the annihilation of all those associated with freedom. The implementation of the plan was thoroughly thought out and organized. The first blow was not to be random; it was absolutely necessary to aim at the ‘heart’. Thus, in all countries cities were hit that had led the fight for freedom. Such a city was the city of Kalavrita, which had taken the lead in the fight for national liberation in 1821...” - P. Nicolaides (Survivor)          3rd ROOM: Destruction in the wider area “We were bombed on 29 November 1943, the eve of Saint Andrew, patron saint of my village, Skepasto. I was twelve years old at the time and went to school. When the German planes flew over us, our teacher, Leonidas Papacharalambous, commanded us to go out. The bombs started falling. I remember him calling me to his side, inside a pit he had fallen in to find cover: “Come on, get close to me and don’t move,” he said. I obeyed. Then a bomb fell, a stone hit me on the head. Blood gushed out ... He couldn’t stop the bleeding for the world ...” - Diamanto Bratsaki – Kotsara “I remember how we carried my father to the village on a ladder. Some wept and others mocked us and laughed ... We put him outside in the garden but someone advised us to bring him inside the house, in case they pitied us and did not set it on fire. But they (the Germans) came in, threw down the oil lamp and tried to burn the house down ... We found the president of the village gutted; he was still alive but we could not help him any more ... We were up all night ... I remember men wearing women’s clothes to escape, climbing on roofs, taking refuge to the rocks ... We did not know where they had executed them yet ... In the morning we begun to look for them. We went to the church of Aghia Paraskevi. The sight was shocking ... layers of corpses … also there were two wounded. A teacher was shot in the jaw; the villagers carried him on their shoulders but it was too late. Another, Philippos Grintzos was his name, had survived the massacre because a dead man had fallen on him and hid him. We dug holes and buried them ...” - Testimony of Elli Stephanopoulos-Grintzos, victim of the tragedy in Kerpini          4th ROOM: The Germans in Kalavrita - Destruction “... It's about 10:30 a.m. and black smoke billows everywhere. Gunshots echo in the city. They are fired to ignite the powder with which the Germans sprinkle the houses to burn them down more easily. Flames and smoke everywhere. Smoke, bangs and looting. The fire eats up mercilessly houses, shops, state institutions, cottages and barns, churches, property, years and years of labor … The first German who dragged me was, in fact, deceived. He thought I was killed and when he left he ‘tipped’ me with a kick. Then a second soldier came. I thought the same thing would happen with him. With the first one’s kick though, my gold watch had fallen from my pocket and he immediately noticed it. He felt it with his hands and at the same time he glanced around him. They had probably forbidden them to rob the dead and he feared that an officer would spot him. The watch dazzled him. It was love at first sight. He picked it up in his hands but then he let it fall again. Eventually I could no longer hold my breath and I breathed in. Then he fired his pistol and shot me in the neck and left immediately.” - Georgios Georgantas (Survivor)          5th ROOM: Historical Memory “I lost my husband, Nicos, and my three lads, Antonis, Georgis and Christos. And I was left alone and unprotected with my five orphans ...” - Antiope Chondronikola “I had four brothers ... I go up and find just one of them, Nicos. Half his head lay forward, the other half lay back, burning ... I take one step back and there I see him, Christos. He is dead too, gutted. I find Alexis too; shot in the heart, bleeding. I find Dimitris; his hands are cut, he is moaning. I step back and find my father. His face was lost … Horror ... grief ... tears ...” - Trisevgeni Ferleli-Rekouti          COURTYARD The sculpture entitled “NO MORE WARS,” by sculptor Nikos Dimopoulos, is in the courtyard of the Museum of the Kalavritan Holocaust. It was donated by the family of Andrew Varelopoulos. It represents a woman who is dragging her executed husband while her children stare painfully at her.