Kommeno
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Kommeno Κομμένο |
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 Kommeno
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Location within the regional unit
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| Coordinates: 39°03′N 21°02′E / 39.050°N 21.033°ECoordinates: 39°03′N 21°02′E / 39.050°N 21.033°E | |
| Country | Greece |
| Administrative region | Epirus |
| Regional unit | Arta |
| Municipality | Nikolaos Skoufas |
| • Municipal unit | 14.4 km2 (5.6 sq mi) |
| Population (2011) | |
| • Municipal unit | 769 |
| • Municipal unit density | 53/km2 (140/sq mi) |
| Time zone | EET (UTC+2) |
| • Summer (DST) | EEST (UTC+3) |
| Vehicle registration | ΑΤ |
Kommeno (Greek: Κομμένο) is a village and a former community in the Arta regional unit, Epirus, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Nikolaos Skoufas, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 14.354 km2. Population 769 (2011).
During the Axis Occupation of Greece in World War II, the village was the site of a massacre perpetrated by 12 Company of the 98th Regiment, of the German 1. Gebirgs-Division (First Mountain Division), which, on 16 August 1943, executed 317 inhabitants and torched the village.
On 12 August 1943, a two-man Wehrmacht reconnaissance team had come across a small group of andartes in the village and had reported back to divisional headquarters in Ioannina. On the evening of 15 August 1943, Colonel Josef Salminger, the commanding officer of the 98th Regiment, ordered 12 Company to attack the village on the following morning. The attack was led by 12 Company's leader, Lieutenant Röser, who personally shot the village priest at the outset of the assault. Men, women and children (74 of them under the age of 10) were killed indiscriminately, but almost half of the village's population managed to escape by swimming across the Arachthos river. The first Wehrmacht reports recorded that 150 civilians had died. As the reports moved up the command chain, they were amended so that "150 civilians" became "150 enemy". The names of the 317 villagers who were killed are now recorded on a marble monument in the village's main square.
The massacre has become the basic cause leading to the foundation of the Cultural Association of Kommeno. The Association was founded in 1976, the result of collaboration by students and farmers inhabiting the village. One of its main goals is to make the world familiar with the history of the village and to change the habits and ways of thinking of its citizens’ mainly the village’s youth. Since 1980, the Association has launched a series of activities that aim to trigger the villagers’ interest and to make them more responsive and sensitive when it comes to matters of history and culture. We’ as members of the Association, would like the people to understand and feel that they inhabit on a diverse world with different ways of thinking and answers on common issues. The young people have to be open minded to new trends according with theories and practices that are becoming the starting points of our era.
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Wikipedia