Sokaras: honoring the 27 Martyrs, 82 years on

Eighty-two years after their execution, the 27 Martyrs of Sokaras were honored on Monday, August 17, 2026, at memorial events organized by the Municipality of Minoa Pediadas. The 27 residents of the village were executed by German occupation forces at the site of Spiliara on August 17, 1944, a few months before the occupation forces withdrew from Crete. The program included Matins and Divine Liturgy at the Holy Church of Agioi Deka, a descent to the ossuary and a memorial service for the 27, a requiem prayer at Spiliara, the roll call of the Martyrs, the laying of wreaths, a minute’s silence, the paying of honors, and the national anthem. The roll call ceremony, during which the victims’ names are read out, is the day’s central moment.

This year’s anniversary carried particular weight, as it was the first held since the state’s official recognition of Sokaras as a Martyred Village. This designation is given to settlements that suffered mass executions or total destruction during the Occupation, and it comes with an institutional obligation to preserve the memory, as well as opportunities for funding memorials and educational activities. For villages in Crete’s inland areas that suffered reprisals, recognition is typically the result of long-running efforts by local associations and the victims’ descendants. The recognition process requires the events to be documented through historical sources and testimonies, together with a corresponding decision by the competent state bodies.

Representing the municipal authority was Minoa Pediadas Municipal Council president and historian Giorgos Kalogerakis, a PhD holder from the University of Ioannina, who delivered the memorial address. Minoa Pediadas mayor Vassilis Kegkeroglou said that “the 27 Martyrs of Sokaras remain a symbol of sacrifice and resistance,” adding that the village’s official recognition constitutes an important moral vindication, without, however, ending the responsibility to preserve the memory. He himself had contributed to the recognition process both as a member of parliament and as a member of the Central Union of Municipalities of Greece.

The executions of August 1944 in the Heraklion area belong to the last and harshest wave of reprisals recorded in Crete before liberation. Dozens of settlements across the island maintain similar memorials and annual ceremonies, which in recent years have also drawn students from local schools. In the case of Sokaras, the recognition opens the way for the village’s formal inclusion on the country’s list of martyred settlements. It has not been announced whether additional initiatives to promote the Spiliara memorial or educational programs for the new school year are planned. More reports from the regional unit are published on the Heraklion page. The number of citizens who attended this year’s ceremony has not been made known, nor whether representatives of the Region of Crete or the government took part.