Editing Battle of Crete (section)

===Massacres of civilians===
[[File:Bundesarchiv Bild 101I-166-0525-30, Kreta, Kondomari, Erschießung von Zivilisten.jpg|thumb|[[Massacre of Kondomari|Massacre of Cretan civilians at Kondomari]], Crete, 1941]]
The Battle of Crete was not the first occasion during the Second World War where the German troops encountered widespread resistance from a civilian population, as similar events took place during the invasion of Poland ([[Kłecko]]); nevertheless it initially surprised and later outraged them. As most Cretan partisans wore no uniforms or insignia such as armbands or headbands, the Germans felt free of all of the constraints of the Hague Conventions and killed armed and unarmed civilians indiscriminately.{{sfn|Beevor|1991|pp=342, 235–248}}{{ref label|Note|e|e}} Even before the end of the battle, civilians were being executed, [[Missiria executions|such as in Missiria]]. Immediately after Crete fell, [[collective punishment]]s against civilians intensified. Between 2 June and 1 August, 195 persons from the village of Alikianos and its vicinity were killed in mass shootings known as the [[Alikianos executions]].{{sfn|Kiriakopoulos|1995|pp=32–34}} On 2 June, several male citizens from [[Massacre of Kondomari|Kondomari were executed]] by a firing squad, with the shootings being captured on film by a German army war correspondent. On 3 June, the village of [[Razing of Kandanos|Kandanos was razed]] to the ground and about 180 of its inhabitants killed. After the war, Student, who ordered the shootings, avoided prosecution for [[war crime]]s, despite Greek efforts to have him extradited.{{sfn|Beevor|1991|pp=236, 342}}

The first [[Supreme Committee of Cretan Struggle|resistance movement]] in Crete was established just two weeks after its capture. Throughout the German occupation in the years that followed, reprisals in retaliation for the involvement of the local population in the Cretan resistance continued. On several occasions, villagers were rounded up and summarily executed. In one of the worst incidents, around 20 villages east of [[Viannos]] and west of the Ierapetra provinces were looted and burnt in September 1943, with [[Viannos massacres|more than 500 of their inhabitants being massacred]].{{sfn|Beevor|1991|pp=292, 165}} These massacres were among the deadliest during the [[Axis occupation of Greece during World War II]]. In August 1944, more than 940 houses in [[Razing of Anogeia|Anogeia]] were looted and then dynamited. During the same month, nine villages in the [[Amari Valley]] were destroyed and 165 people killed in what is now known as the [[Holocaust of Kedros]].{{sfn|Beevor|1991|pp=231}} All these reprisals were ordered by ''[[General (Germany)|Generalleutnant]]'' [[Friedrich-Wilhelm Müller]], who was nicknamed "The Butcher of Crete". After the war, Müller was tried by a Greek military court and executed.<ref>{{cite web |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120401143013/http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/warcrimgenrls.htm |url=http://www.ess.uwe.ac.uk/WCC/warcrimgenrls.htm |title=Noteworthy War Criminals |author=Stein, Stuart |publisher=University of the West of England |archive-date=1 April 2012 |access-date=21 May 2016}}</ref>
Further assaults on civilians, albeit with lower death tolls, occurred in  [[Razing of Vorizia|Vorizia]], [[Burnings of Kali Sykia|Kali Sykia]], [[Kallikratis executions|Kallikratis]], [[Skourvoula executions|Skourvoula]], and [[Malathyros executions|Malathyros]].