"The furlough-trains on the Athens-Salonica-Belgrade line in particular, were often attacked and fired on. The Army Postal Service also suffered deaths and injuries because of this. As was to be expected the excitement among the soldiers was very great when fellow-soldiers reported what they had seen and experienced themselves."
The next document which is Felmy Document 69 on page 12 of Felmy Document Book 3 is an affidavit of Bruno Voss. This will be offered as Felmy Exhibit 106. Voss was a member of the first Panzer Division and in the staff of which he served as an auxilliary officer. I would like to read from the past paragraph on page 12.
"I am giving a description of the incident with the two Greek parachutists: One morning a first lieutenant of the Panzer regiment No. I captured a former Greek first lieutenant in the vicinity of Argos. The latter had parachuted from an English aircraft at dawn, and had the order to establish contact with a partisan leader. Take-off base was North Africa. He was accompanied by a radio mechanic who, as far as I know escaped. This Greek first lieutenant when captured, carried with him or had already hidden under ground: one radio set, one power source, food, English airmaps of the entire Balkan peninsula etc. On that morning this first lieutenant sat in my office in Xylokastron, from 9 o'clock in the morning until about noon. Members of the armed forces were forbidden to interrogate such people, so I discussed with him only privately from where he came and where he wanted to go. On the order of the LXVIII Army Corps this man was fetched by a local command post in Athens at noon of the same day or was brought there by the divisional Military Police. I do no longer know that exactly. While this first lieutenant was on the Peloponnesus, nothing happened to him.
"The food supplies which the German armed forces placed at the disposal of the Greek population during the fall of 1943 was rather large. It was probably a result of the efforts of the German armed forces that ample supplies of fruit arrived in Athens in the fall of 1943. Most of the supply vehicles going to Athens or the Piraeus without freight were placed at the disposal of Greek fruit wholesalers."
The next document which I would like to offer is Felmy Document 71 on page 16. This is an affidavit executed by Erhard Glitz where he comments on cruelties and atrocities committed by the partisans. I don't want to read this rather voluminous affidavit. It will be given Exhibit No. 107.
The next document to offer will be Felmy Document No. 75. This is on page 31 of Felmy Document Book III and it is an affidavit executed by Franz Borstorff. This document will be offered as Felmy Exhibit No. 108. I would like to read the first, second and third paragraphs. First of all, I would like to anticipate that Borstorff was an interpreter on the staff of the 68th Corps.
"The Dulag (transient camp) 135, in which all members of the allied forces and merchant marine captured by German troops in the area of the LXVIII Army Corps were collected before they were sent on to a prisoner of war or internment camp, was in Athens.
"As English interpreter, I had the order, given by General FELMY, to look specially after each one of the prisoners brought in and to register them with the Swiss Red Cross for further care. The care and aid given to the prisoners, in the execution of this order, was especially urgent and extensive, since most of the prisoners were shipwrecked and had saved nothing but their life.
They were supplied with all essentials as fast as possible.
"These measures corresponded entirely with the basic attitude of General FELMY, who, as a soldier of the old school, always fought chivalrously and, just as chivalrously, granted every possible aid to his beaten enemy" The next document to offer is Felmy Document No. 77 on page 36.
This is an affidavit by Solfgang Busse. This document will be offered as Felmy Exhibit No. 109.
The next document which I shall offer is Felmy Document 79 on page 41. This is an affidavit by Albert Kistner and it will be given Felmy exhibit number 110.
The last document to be offered from this document book will be Felmy Document 83 on page 51 and this is an affidavit of Karl-Heinz Freimuth. This affidavit will be given exhibit number 111.
If your Honors please, this finishes all document in Felmy Document Book III.
Felmy Document Book No. IV has been presented as a whole. This is the war diary of the 68th Corps for the first six months of 1944.
From Felmy Document Book V there arc only two documents which I would like to present. There is, first of all, Felmy Document 105 on page 75. This document has been taken from the last dispatch of photostats of documents from Washington. This is an agreement between the Communist Parties of Greece and Bulgaria, the aim of which was a Union of Socialist Soviet Republics in the Balkans.
MR. FENSTERMACHER: Your Honor, I submit that this is completely irrelevant and immaterial to any of the issues raised in this trial.
PRESIDING JUDGE CARTER: What do you expect to show by this affidavit?
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: If your Honors please, I would like to show the aim of the Communist parties of both Greece and Bulgaria; namely, as I indicated now, that they aimed at a Union of Socialist Soviet Republic in the Balkans. This is expressed in an agreement dated 12 July 1943. At that time, already, the endeavor existed to bolschevize the Balkans.
PRESIDING JUDGE CARTER: We will receive the information for what it is worth.
DR. MUELLER-TORTOW: This document will be given Felmy Exhibit No. 112.
The last document to be offered from Felmy Document Book V is Felmy Document No. 116 on page 86. This is a supplement to the prosecution document NOKW-934 which is contained in Document Book XXI of the prosecution.
PRESIDING JUDGE CARTER: Do you know the exhibit number?
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: I am afraid I don't know the exhibit number, your Honor.
PRESIDING JUDGE CARTER: The page number of the document book?
DR. MUELLER-TORGOW: I only know the German page and that is 112 in Document Book XXI but I am afraid that is in the German Book. I don't have the English page number available at the moment.
As mentioned, this is a supplementary excerpt to Document NOKW-964 and from this supplement it can be seen that General Felmy had no connection whatsoever with the incidents with which he is charged here because under the heading, "Internal Situation," it is stated:
"Internal Position: Garrison Headquarters East Aegaeis, garrison headquarters fortified Position Creta and 68th Army Corps: reports not yet on hand."
This sentence is not contained in the document submitted by the Prosecution.
This brings me to Felmy Document Book VI, which again contains a number of affidavits which speak for General Felmy. The first document to offer will be Felmy Document 118 on page 1. This will be given Felmy exhibit number 114. It is an affidavit by Dr. Claus Aschenbrenner which was originally worded in the English language. Aschenbrenner at the moment resides in the United States. I would like to read a few passages from this affidavit, the third passage on page 1:
"I have known General Felmy since 117 when I was an officer in the reserve of the German Signal Corps and delegated with a radio station to a reconnaissance squadron on the Palestine theater, then under the command of General Felmy.
I should exphasize that I was neither at that time nor later when I was an engineer in the Reich Air Ministry, under the command of jurisdiction of General Felmy and, therefore, am not prejudiced in any direction by the fact of former military subordination."
On page 2 I would like to read from the last but one paragraph:
"In peace time when talking with me about his profession as an officer, Mr. Felmy expressed but the same thoughts about military planning being a necessary tool to maintain the balance of power, secure peace and prevent war as I have expressed by a number of high ranking officers of other nations I met during my commercial and scientific activities in the field of aerial photogrammetry and as can be found frequently in the postwar discussion and literature of members of the United Nations.
"He never made any remark to me permitting the impression that he was wishing for the outbreak of a war as a possible means to improve Germany's political situation, not to think of him having in mind to gain any personal advantages by a war. I have never heard anybody else reporting differently on Mr. Felmy's attitude.
"Politically he let me understand that he followed the line long established in the German Armed Forces, namely that the army should stay away from politics, devoted entirely to the service of the nation as such, represented by the legally established Government, be it composed as it may. Thus for him it was out of the question to quit because of disagreement with any political line followed or decision made by the actual Government, This would have been against the responsibility he felt to be entrusted with and had decided to take upon himself.
"This abstention of Mr. Felmy's from the political life, according to the general line set up for the armed forces, did not mean that he advocated militarism. I know from several remarks he made to me that he was convinced the armed forces should only be an instrument for the nations protection in the hand of the government but never attempt to take over political power for their own.
"He sometimes also expressed his deep concern over the increasing merger between Government and Party agencies, which rendered more and more difficult following the neutral political line mentioned above and was to bring higher ranking officers in more or less open opposition to the political hierarchy. From some sparse remarks he made on this subject - he used to be rather taciturn - I have always suspected that this was at the roots of the differences lending to his dismissal."
THE PRESIDENT: The Tribunal will take its afternoon recess at this time.
THE MARSHAL: The Court will be in recess for 15 minutes.
THE MARSHAL: The Tribunal is again in session.
THE PRESIDENT: Proceed.
MR. FULKERSON: Since there seems to be some confusion between the Prosecution and the Defense as to the disposition of the affidavits of General Eisenhower and other affidavits that were obtained pursuant to the Court's order, and since the Secretary General says that he only has a copy of one of these documents, and doesn't even know that the others exist, I would like to request on behalf of the Prosecution that these documents be filed with the Court and that then, if the Defense Counsel decide later that they don't want to use them, the Prosecution can make its decision as to whether it wants to use them, but in any event, the documents will be filed in court and there will be no danger of their being lost. At the same time, the Prosecution would like to have access to them so as to be able to read them.
JUDGE CARTER: The Tribunal will reserve its ruling and make it later.
DR. MUELLER: May it please the Tribunal, the first document is 116, in Volume 5, to which I have to make a supplement. The Prosecution Document NOKW 964, contained in Volume 21 of the Prosecution on Page 139 of the English text, this is Prosecution Exhibit 498. From Document Book Felmy, No. 6, I offer Document No. 119 on Page 5. It is an affidavit by Dr. Hans Engels, and it is offered as Exhibit 115. The next document is Document 120, on Page 6. It is an affidavit by Fritz Bessler. It is offered as Exhibit 116. Fritz Bessler was for some time the pilot of General Felmy. I should like to read the essential parts of this affidavit.
"I have known General FELMY personally since the fall of 1936. I was his constant companion on all his flights prior and during the war. My opinion about the person of General FELMY is therefore based on personal experiences and impressions which I shared with him in the course of 8 years.
As Chief of the Air-Fleet 2 in peace-time, the General was the most popular Chief in Luftwaffe circles.
His quiet conduct -- he was called the great silent man - his calm comradely nature, his prudence and fair thinking and acting gained him the respect and admiration of all officers and men in his sphere of command. At that time already he differed considerably from that type of Luftwaffe Generals which was more popular to Reichsmarschall GOERING. This abyss between GOERING's favorites on the one hand and General FELMY the "officer without fear and reproach" on the other hand, did logically lead to his dismissal on 13 January 1940.
I myself worked with General FELMY for 2 months, and our acquaintance was only in the beginning stages, when I was arrested by the Gestapo in Braunschweig under the suspicion of high treason and was confined for weeks. After the order had already been given to put me in a concentration camp for an indefinite period and my situation was almost hopeless I was again released only as a result of the General's personal initiative, and reinstated in spite of the fact that, according to the then prevailing conception, the resumption of my activity in my old position appeared to be impossible.
At the beginning of June 1941 the General was recalled on orders of HITLER. In conversations I had with him at that time he asserted that the only motive for his return was the fact that he was ordered to do so and his sense of duty to the fatherland, that, however, he would not be in a position of ever shaking hands with the Reichsmarschall again. It was intended to put the general in charge of Military Mission in Iraq, after the failure of the offensive in the Near East, was given the designation Special Staff F.
This staff was stationed with its troops in Southern Attica to be trained for desert warfare. Here, we all regarded the General as the ideal loader. In his addresses and conversations regarding the formation of his future officer's corps, he always appealed to us for fairness in combat, he described the desert operations against the British in the first world war and frequently told us about experiences with regard to the mutual fairness in combat - the British Lieutenant DOUGIAS of that time and probably now the Supreme Commander of the British Zone in Germany was also mentioned in this connection.
Lieutenant DOUGLAS dropped his snapshot from an airplane for the then Captain FELMY with the following attached dedication:
As a token of memory to the brave and fair Captain FELMY, signed: DOUGLAS. I have seen this picture in FELMY's house personally.
Among the soldiers, the General acquired the name "Papa FELMY" in no time, which he also kept for the duration of the war. In addition to the Special Staff F the General was also in charge of the Office of the "Military Commander South Greece". However, the command situation and the sphere of tasks of the last mentioned office were so confused and insignificant that the General devoted himself almost exclusively to the training of the Special Staff F. During this entire period of the first action in Greece the General visited Crete only once. He was in command of the island only in territorial respect and as far as the supply problem was concerned. Following & constant pressure on the Wehrmacht High Command, the General in August 1942 succeeded in freeing himself of the unthankful and undefined post of Military Commander for South Greece to be assigned to the Caucasus as Commander of the LXVIII Army Corps with his now trained troops of the Special Staff F. The Corps, after the retreat from the Caucasus, was transferred to Southern Greece. The relations with the population were good and of mutual trust. It frequently occurred that mayors of Greek towns came to see the General asking his protection from looting Italians.
As far as it was possible - the Italians were the real masters in the country, consequently we had to depend on them -- it was then attempted to shift a German unit to the town in question in order to restore tranquility and security for the population. I was in Argos when the Italians surrendered. The order for disarming of the Italians, received by the Corps, did not contain anything about shootings in certain cases. The Italians then surrendered their arms without any re sistance - the mutual relations were obviously cool but not hostile.
At the most, we soldiers felt pit for these sad sacks but there was no hate.
In the course of 1943 we encountered increased partisan activities and frequently suffered unpleasant losses which unfortunately occurred from ambush. In the course of time I myself have seen about 300 captured partisans, however, I have never seen one of them in clothes which resembled a uniform.
Court No. V, Case No. VII.
These bands, dressed in rags, did not only attack German troops in a treacherous manner, but in the same manner plundered their own countrymen and villages. It were the partisans and not the occupation power who terrorized the country. Numerous Greeks reported to us voluntarily in order to fight against this terror. With the explicit reservation not to fight against the Allies in case of an allied invasion of Greece, we nevertheless equipped these Greek troops with arms and they fought against the partisans independently. When it became clear that the German troops would leave Greece the General negotiated several times with the highest dignitary of the Greek church and also with other prominent persons, always with the sole objective to prevent a catastrophe through civil war after we had left the country. It was even said that the General would secretly enter into negotiations with a British General from Cairo for the purpose of surrendering the city of Athens. All this was done for the sole purpose of preventing the outbreak of bloody riots in the city following our withdrawal."
The next document, which is NO. 121, to be found on page 10, is an affidavit by Dr. Kurt Fritz von Graevenitz. It is offered as Exhibit 117. I should like to read this affidavit.
"I know General Felmy from Athens, where I served from 1938 to 1944 as Legation Councilor with the representatives of the Foreign Office, in his two capacities as Commander in Southern Greece and as Commander of the 68th Army Corps. Herr Felmy belonged to those leading military personalities who were constantly open to even- non-military points of view and had complete understanding for the needs of the civilian population. He would never have ordered severities without compelling military necessity and then only after a conscientious investigation. The situation became especially serious when a partisan war broke out in Greece, particularly in the Peloponnesus zone of hostilities, with an insidious enemy who could not be seized because he did not make an appearance in a military way. With regard to the Court No. V, Case No. VII.
reaction to attacks from ambush the commanders, moreover, did not have a free hand. On the contrary, they were bound by extremely strict orders, the force of which according to the general view -- even that of the Greeks -- was in those years open to no doubt. I have never heard from the Greek side, no matter how enraged they were over reprisal measures ordered, that the generals for their part could have acted any differently in view of their strict orders from above. Wherever margin was left for his own judgment General Felmy tried to put through the more lenient interpretation. Of the individual cases charged against him I only remember the Kalavrita case. As is well known, the reprisal measures there were not ordered by General Felmy, who at that time was not even present. I recall one conversation in which he criticized the measures sharply; he considered them, as he expressed it himself more or less, an outrage and only regretted that he was unable to do anything against them in view of the general trend prevailing behind them.
"Late in the summer and fall of 1944 Athens and its surroundings were already to a great extent in the hands of the Communist bandits. This made the general's position more difficult to an extraordinary degree and forced him to observe special watchfulness. However, I do not recall that for this reason he had to use especially severe measures against the people. He tried not to make the law-abiding elements of the population, who, he knew, themselves regarded the bandits as their enemies for more than the German troops, suffer for the excesses of the Communists. This attitude also explains his conduct before the evacuation of Athens. There too I remember conversations in which he expressed his endeavor to circumvent the strict orders which existed regarding the destruction of transport installations which were also useful to the enemy, or to soften them in their application. He also acted accordingly. Neither the reservoir for the Athens water system (Lake Marathon) was blown up, nor the electric power plant; in the case of the latter the plant was only temporarily Court No. V, Case No. VII.
put out of order. The general's cooperation with Archbishop Damaskinos and the Swiss Consul, Escher, for the purpose of preventing hardships during the evacuation of Athens is well known and might also be attested by the above-named individuals."
Document No. 122, to be found on page 12 is an affidavit by University Professor Fahrner. It is offered as Exhibit 118. I should like to read this brief affidavit.
"From 1939 to 1944 I was employed as a professor in the University of Athens and had no insight into military measures whatsoever. I met General Felmy on several occasions as host and conversely as guest, as well as on several visits on my part, and I received a deep impression of his chivalrous attitude and way of thinking which appeared in his every gesture and in connection with every topic of conversation. I should expressly like to emphasize that among all the representatives of the generals' class with whom I became acquainted in the course of the past war he seemed to stand out in particular in contrast to a few others. My ideas and concerns, which turned exclusively around saving individual threatened Greeks and around the problem of how the measures toward the Greek population could reasonably be moulded in the spirit of humanity without our military interests taking any harm, were always received by him with great willingness and the deepest understanding, According to all my impressions I cannot imagine anything less likely than that General Felmy could be found to be a war criminal."
The next document, if the Tribunal please, is Document No. 123, on page 13. It is an affidavit by Hans Keller and I should like to read it.
"I was a member of the Corps Staff of the 68th Army Corps from 1941 to May 1945 without interruption, at first as acting corporal and then in the higher ranks up to master sergeant, and also as 1st clerk in the Quartermaster's Battalion.
"During his years in Greece General Felmy made a constant Court No. V, Case No. VII.
effort to wage war as humanely as possible for the Greek people. The orders given concerning the partisan organization often seemed too mild to the German soldier in retaliation for the atrocities committed by the bandits.
"By declaring Athens an open city and leaving the Marathon Power Plant undamaged for the Greeks General Felmy saved the city, and more than that, the province of Attica, from terrible misery and disease.
"General Felmy's thoroughly humane way of acting with regard to the Greek people was gratefully acknowledged by the latter.
"To my recollection General Felmy was esteemed by members of the Greek government as well as by the Greek people as a German army commander who was not only deeply concerned about the welfare of his own troops but also the welfare of the Greek people and Greece altogether."
Document No. 124, which may be found on page 15, is an affidavit by Dr. Fbs Kautzsch, which is offered as Exhibit 120.
"From August 1941 until July 1943 I was assigned as a medical officer with a combat air force unit in Greece and Crete, from September 1943 on I was stationed at the air corps hospital in Athens and went through the whole Balkan evacuation movement with this unit, until April 1945.
"The band activities in the Athens and Peloponnesian sectors were insignificant until the summer of 1942. After this date out-ofthe-way roads could no longer be travelled without escort. In 1943, and especially in 1944, it was ill advised, for instance to drive in an unescorted vehicle from Athens to Corinth, because band attacks could be counted on. I, myself, never experienced an attack in the neighborhood of Athens, but I was informed that there had been attacks.
"In the summer of 1944 the base hospital for minor casualities and convalescent home Parnis near Athens, which was attached to my hospital in some respects, was attacked several times by the Partisans; however, these attacks were repulsed quickly and without casualties.
Court No. V, Case No. VII.
The convalescent home was later protected with mines.
"On the convoy occasioned by the transfer of my hospital from Athens to Saloniki the 32 vehicles (10 ambulances, 5 passenger vehicles, 2 motorcycles, 1 bus and 14 trucks) all of which were identified as Medical Corps vehicles with the Red Cross - for this purpose we had drawn white pieces of cloth with a red cross over the canvas covering were attacked by the Partisans with machine guns, mortars and rifles. The incident took place north of Lamia between the 10th and 15th of September 1944 (I cannot say the exact day because I don't have my diaries any longer). It was shortly after noon. We had stopped to rest for about one hour and the firing began as the first vehicle started off. Luckily no one was injured. A police car came to our assistance with a heavy machine gun, whereupon the Partisans ceased fire."
"A few kilometers north of this spote our colum was again attacked by light anti-aircraft fire, which came from a position to the side of us in the mountainous terrain that could not be surveyed.
"The treatment of the Greek population by the unit was excellent. Expulsion from their homes, confiscation of the entire furniture and the like, as is still done today in Germany (for example, in Munich-Harlaching) never came to my attention. Billeting was restricted to giving us single rooms - so that, for instance, Greeks also lived in houses were staffs were billeted - or houses were used whose owners had evacuated them (for instance in Fleusis near Athens).After the introduction of cantine coupons in 1942 the soldiers could no longer maker purchases in the civilian sector.
"Illegal acts on the part of members of the Armed Forces were, in all cases, that I know about, handled by a court martial or at least with disciplinary punishment. The question often came up among the soldiers of whether we had won the war in Greece or whether the Greeks had. The voice of the G.I!
"Greek civilians employed by the various units were almost exclusively treated by the medical officers and in many cases their families were too. In other cases, too, the German medical officers gave assistance when no Greek doctor was available.
"After the dissolution of the air corps hospital in Athens a large supply of hospital linen and equipment, as well as medicine was made available to the Greek population through the Red Cross. So far as I know, the other army hospitals in Athens did the same.
"In the beginning of December, on the march back, we met the remainder of a motorized hospital on a pass behind Visegrad in Yugoslavia, which had camped there for the night a few days earlier and had been attacked there by the Partisans in spite of their Red Cross markings and had suffered considerable losses. Sometime between the 16th and 19th of December 1944 we were attacked by Partisans with anti-aircraft guns from a farm between Serajevo and Brod - I no longer know the exact place,anti-aircraft guns which were brought up drove off the enemy.
The next document is Felmy Document No. 125, to be found on page 18. It is an affidavit by Dr. Peter Biesalski, offered as Exhibit 121. I shall read the third paragraph:
"As 2nd Lt. M.C. and medical officer with the 68th Army Corps, which was under the command of Air Force General Felmy, I was sent, in Nov. 1943, to Githion near Sparta on the Peloponnessus as base doctor, I worked there until Feb. 1944 and took care of the troops stationed there. Be sides this official work I treated a great many Greek civilians, exclusively with Army medical supplies.
As everywhere on the Balkans I thereby won a great many honest and grateful friends and was able to gain an accurate insight into the true opinions of the Greek population, I mention this in advance as necessary for the statement which now follows.
"In Jan. 1944 (I no longer know the exact date) I was ordered to examine 11 German soldiers and one Greek civilian who had been found killed by the Partisans, to determine the cause of death. I found the corpses in a farm near Githion and made an examination of every single body, which lasted several hours; a report was made at the same time which I later forwarded through official channels.
"I remember exactly that almost all the bodies, excepting one or two, had been mutilated and injured by violent means, On several the skulls had been shattered, probably with rifle butts, others were entirely disfigured through injuries and blows in the face. Extensive hemorrhages and skin abrasions pointed to kicks and gun butts. Added to this there were more or less serious injuries through hand grenades and infantry ammunition. My former subordinates and I ascertained that several wounded or dead had also been shot with shotguns from close range.
"I remember clearly that some of the German soldiers had received relatively harmless bullet wounds like grazing shots or flesh wounds, and that the cause of death was undoubtedly due to the crushing of the skull or other blunt injuries. For me there was even at that time no doubt that a part of the wounded had been killed in this way or killed by being shot from close up. In some of the other corpses the cause of death was definitely due to hand grenades and rifle or machinegun fire. One Lieutenant had his ring finger with wedding ring cut off from his hand. So far as I remember papers and valuables were missing from all the corpses and most of the clothing from almost all. However, I cannot make any sure and binding statements about this. In all cases, death had not set in more than 12 to 20 hours, previously. An autopsy had to be omitted in all cases because of a lack of instruments.
"The burial, which took place the next day at the cemetery in Githion, where a few weeks before several German soldiers who had lost their lives similarly already had been buried, was attended by a great many people from all walks of life and by the clergy. Here, and also later, I heard again and again that the Greek people did not accept this method of fighting and had recoiled with herror from the instigators of this attack and similar acts of violence by the Partisans.
The next document is Document No. 126 on page 21 which is an affidavit by Heinz Buchspiess, offered as Exhibit 122.
"From 12 August 1942 to the end of the War I was with the 68th Army Corps.
"I am not in a position to comment on the individual counts of the indictment, as I was not in the units of the subordinated divisions, but was in the Corps formations which were directly under the command of the Corps, and the counts mentioned refer to matters that were the sole concern of the Strategic and Tactical General Planning Staff, which were dealt with by Army Corps Operational Staff Headquarters.
"I deem it worth while mentioning, though, how conditions were in that particular Corps unit in which I served, as we were under the direct command of General Felmy, and his ideas and actions had an immediate effect on us. Our unit always maintained unimpeachable relations to the respective population, which, in the course of weeks and months, our battalion was able to build up into a really cordial intercourse. In Paeania-Liopesi (On the AthensCape Sunion line), where we were stationed for a whole year, we never had any clashes or differences of any description. The population showed full understanding for the moderate demands of the troops. At no time was the security of the battalion endangered in any way, although it was billetted with its vehicles all over the village. There was not a single case of theft (for example vehicles, spare parts). The Corps never issued any orders to effect compulsory - or reprisal measures. The desires and rights of the population were always meticulously considered; for instance, the celebration of the traditional Greek Easter holidays with hocturnal processions, which had been prohibited since the British occupation of Greece, was fully permitted. Church and community leaders expressed their gratitude and recognition in a very cordial manner. To prove our cordial relation's with the population I mention that even nowadays we maintain correspondence with our hosts.
"I am certain that this would not be the case, if we had behaved like oppressors and if we had infringed any legal principles.
"This description of the relations, prevailing between the German Armed Forces and the Greek population, refers to, as mentioned before, the sector in which I myself was stationed; I had no knowledge of the individual local conditions in the areas of the divisions (on the Peloponneses and in Central Greece). It has been established, however, that a foreign power in Greece was bound to meet with particularly numerous difficulties, as the country and its population were not unilaterally directed as to purposes and conceptions, which condition is still prevailing. The differences between parts of the population, who were either Anglophiles, or favored the Germans, were imbued with nationalistic trends opposing any foreign powers, monarchists, republicans, or grouped in left-wing EAM and ELAS formations constituted the various courses of slashes and disputes. I am of opinion that clashes occurred always there, where the security of our own troops was endangered by constant raids.
A considerable part of the population reiterated time and again that they rejected, and were contemptuous of this type of warfare. It was a general belief that order could be restored, if the ever-increasing raids were to cease, an it was they that by necessity caused all countermeasures. It was thought that the actual fact of foreign troops in the country, regardless whether they were German or not, demanded subordination for the sake of peace and order.
"A growing insecurity developed on the roads, that were initially none too easy to negotiate, so that individual vehicles in the "bandit territories", which were also known as such to the Greek population, (parts of the Peloponnesus, the area round Thebes, Western Greece, Euboea), could not travel alone any longer. It became unavoidable that convoys were assembled. At the same time, there were constant attacks on the railroads. This applied in particular to the only rail connection to Saloriki, which had to carry all supply and leave-train traffic etc., and which was constantly threatened.
"Bearing all this in mind the responsible military commander was compelled to make arrangements for maintaining the security. Judging by my knowledge of Felmy's character and the ideology prevalent in the Corps Headquarters Staff, due to his leadership, I consider it quite impossible that General Felmy should have harrassed and oppressed the Greek population.
"There were orders for the troops according to which any excesses by German soldiers against Greeks and their property were to be severely punished.