A Greek Holocaust

We've all heard of  the Holocaust- the slaughter of Jews during World War 2.  But did you realize there were additional atrocities committed in that time frame.  On June 10, 1944 a Nazi troop invaded the Greek village of Distomo and massacred everyone.  The only villagers to survive were those who were out in the fields or away from the village for the day.

This was during the occupation of Greece.  The Axis powers of Germany, Italy, and Bulgaria all spent time occupying Greece during the WW2 time frame.

The reason for the German Nazi's to murder this village ? Retaliation.  They were retaliating for a partisan (Greek resistance) attack upon the Nazi troop division.  They believed some of the partisan members were Distomo villagers.

So the Nazi's came to town.  They beheaded the local priest. They shot women and children. They took their bayonets to little babies in their cribs.  They killed the men, young and old alike. And if that is not enough-- the village was looted and burned before they left.

A few days later the Nazi's returned to the village, but the villagers had received a message alerting them and the surviving villagers fled to the the hills.

Read and see more about the Distomo massacre here.

 This horror reminds me  of stories that had been shared with me when I lived in Greece.  Stories that I found difficult to comprehend because they seem to be so out of my realm of experience.

A story stating that Nazi retaliation was common place. People stayed home- did not venture out unless absolutely necessary.  If something happened to a German soldier, their troops would gather the first 5 Greeks they saw and retaliated with death.  You could be merely walking down the street to buy a loaf of bread and be grabbed and shot.  This happened in a small train station village near me.

Another story of how Nazi's came to my in-laws village.  The village knew they were coming and ran to the hills.  Some villagers stayed back and were found dead when the village returned.  Babies and children put in outdoor ovens to bake, men and women shot. The village plundered.  My mother-in-law ( who would have been around 12-13 years old at the time) tells me that her younger brother was snatched by the Germans.  They never saw him again.  They believe he was taken to be raised German.  Or maybe that is just easier for her to think that than to believe he might have been killed.  His remains were never found, so they have hope he remained alive.

And even a slight hint that my own grandfather may have had a part in the Greek resistance.  I need to investigate this more.  He died during this time period (early 1940's) from pneumonia that he caught while walking from one village to another in winter.  That was what I had always been told until recently when I was told that he did work against the Nazi's.

Really.  People I know and love personally have experienced these things.  I can hardly fathom it because the blessed life I have led on this western hemisphere of the world.  A land that has not seen the horrors of war up close and personal in our own yard.  

It is important that these stories aren't forgotten.  As George Santayana's quote says, "Those who don't know history are doomed to repeat it."

Another thing to be aware of.....

{Photo by Ethan Livengood}

A bear! A bear!   It seems in the neighboring town we have a bear on the prowl.  The picture above is a black bear sighted in the downtown area of this small town brazenly walking down the street.  Seems like he knows that we walk on the sidewalks.  A citizen snapped this picture.  Conservation agents have been notified and they are trying to locate the bear to remove it from populated areas. 

The advice given is --Don't Feed Bears!   It reminds me of an old Yogi Bear cartoon.  

The conservation site says that black bears wake up from hibernation in the spring and go searching for food. They shouldn't be confronted or given food intentionally.  Bears will remember where food is from year to year.  

The black bear is native to our state, but they were wiped out during settlement.  Only in recent years are they making a comeback.  They are more common in the southern part of the state, but have started moving north.  

I never thought that I would have to be on guard for bears, but I guess a time's a changin'.   

Zoo Overnighter

This week I took my class and a handful of their parents to spend the night at the zoo.  It was great fun!  We went in after hours and had the whole zoo to ourselves. 

 Two zoo staff planned a program of activities for us and accompanied us as we explored the zoo.  After dark we went back out and explored again paying attention to the nocturnal animals.  Finally, exhausted yet exhilarated we headed back to the exploration outpost and hit the sack. 

 Early morning we woke and had a light breakfast ( and lots of coffee for me) and went back out to see the animals again.  This was before the zoo officially opened for the day.  

Our day ended at the stingray exhibit where we were able to pet the stingrays that came up to us.  

Our guides shared a lot of information with us and talked about conservation and how to save animals.  

It was a good trip but everyone was tired as we traveled back home 24 hours later. 

Bloglovin

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I am now linked up on Bloglovin
I used to use google reader before they took that away.  I haven't really found anything that I like as well as google reader.  I am going to try bloglovin as I have seen it on many blogs.

What blog reader do you use? 

Reflecting on A-to-Z Challenge

The month of April flew by!  I made it!  I was able to post everyday with the correct letter of the alphabet except for the letter Z which was a day late.  *sigh*  Thanks to everyone who is involved with the Challenge.  You do a fabulous job!  Also thanks to everyone who stopped by and read my blog and to those who commented.  I appreciate you.  Knowing you have an audience and reading comments is so motivating.

This was my second year participating in the A to Z Challenge.  After last year's challenge, I had grand plans on proceeding with blogging in general and how to accomplish this year's challenge in a more efficient and product way.  Then life switched gears on me and interrupted my best laid plans.

My work changed and I no longer had as much time or brain power left over as I learned new job related content.  I considered dropping out of the challenge before it even began.  However, I mustered up whatever gumption I had and jumped in with both feet.

I love reading the blogs of people that I would never come across if I didn't have the A to Z Challenge. I enjoy reading about different topics, themes, and  just life & culture in general from around the US and the world. I've made some new blogging friends and have found some blogs that I will continue to follow throughout the year.   I regret not having the time to respond to every comment that was made on my blog.  I also regret not reading as many blogs as I did last year.

I did suggest to a friend and blogger that she try the challenge this year.  She took the challenge and did an awesome job.  I enjoyed reading her blogs on the authentic life.  Her blog can be found here. 

I definitely will try to do the Challenge again next year.  Third try is the charm, right ?  This didn't work out for me this year, but my goal and plan will be to begin writing my posts early so I will have more time to read more blogs and respond.  I  also want to be able to blog on a regular basis.  Instead of setting a higher goal of blogging 3 times a week (like last year),  I will shoot for something weekly.

 One of my frustrations this year was to be able to leave a link to my blog when I commented on other blogs.  Last year I remember seeing an A-to Z Challenge blog post that explained how to do that and I was able to do it last year.  This year for some reason it didn't work  for me.  Perhaps the blogger platform changed in some way.  If anyone knows how to do that I would love to read the instructions again and try it out.

If you are reading this and did not participate this year in the A to Z Challenge -  my advice is to take the plunge next year.  You can do it!


 

Who sleeps at the Zoo? We do.

I'm taking my class on a trip in a couple weeks.  We are going to go to the zoo which is a couple of hours from here.   The interesting thing is that this is no ordinary trip to the zoo.  We are actually going to spend the night.  In. the. zoo.   Yes, you read that right, we are going to be sleeping in the zoo.

1. We'll be hiking through the zoo in the evening saying good night to the animals.  We'll wake up and make the rounds to say good morning to the animals.  

I just hope that neither we nor the animals go sleepwalking during the night!  

Yesterday

Yesterday.   It was 24 hours ago.  It is over.  Gone. Never to return.  

Why do we continue to look at yesterday when tomorrow is up ahead?  Life is too short to dwell on the past.  Yesterday had hurts.  Yesterday had some good times and some bad times.  Yesterday is over.

Face forward and march gladly into tomorrow.   Choose to live going forward instead of always looking back.