Holocaust of Kedros

[1] The operation was carried out on 22 August 1944 by Wehrmacht infantry and was followed in the coming days by the razing of most villages, looting, pillage of livestock and destruction of harvests.

The operation was ordered by Generalleutnant Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller, commander of the garrison of Crete, to intimidate the population and deter local guerrillas from attacking the occupation forces during their imminent retreat to Chania.

The Amari basin is a scenic fertile valley lying five to six hundred meters above sea level in the southeast part of the Rethymno regional unit.

In sharp contrast with the barren mountain peaks overlooking it, the valley has plenty of water and vegetation and has been inhabited as early as the Minoan era.

To promote agricultural education, a school called Scholi Asomaton (Greek: Γεωργική Σχολή Ασωμάτων) was established in 1927 in the buildings of a former monastery located in the valley.

[citation needed] The support of the locals, combined with the region's beauty, led the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) agents then serving in Crete to coin the nickname Lotus Land for the Amari valley.

[6][page needed] Among those who sheltered there were Tom Dunbabin, Xan Fielding, and Patrick Leigh Fermor who used various hideouts in the nearby slopes.

[10] Many accounts of the destruction of the Kedros villages adopt the official German narrative and seek to attribute it to the residents' having provided shelter to Kreipe's abductors.

Another explanation is that the Germans destroyed Kedros to terrorize the local population and reduce the risk of being attacked during their impending retreat, which eventually started in early October.

In Beevor's words, "the Amari operation was essentially a campaign of pre-emptive terror just before the German forces withdrew westwards from Heraklion with their flank exposed to this centre of Cretan resistance".

[2][page needed] At dawn on 11 September 1944, a local ELAS detachment surrounded Scholi Asomaton and captured the garrison of the German outpost established there.