The German Cemetery in Crete That Neo-Nazis Still Visit Every Year
Eighty-five years ago today, Nazi forces completed their occupation of Crete following Operation Mercury, the largest airborne invasion in military history up to that point. The battle began on May 20, 1941, when thousands of German paratroopers landed on the island and met fierce resistance from British forces and Cretan civilians fighting with whatever weapons they could find.
The operation came at a steep cost for Germany. Around 3,500 German paratroopers were killed during the Battle of Crete, and historians note the island might never have fallen if British commanders had not made a series of critical tactical errors during the fighting.
The wreath carried the inscription "All for mutual loyalty," a phrase now banned in Germany because of its Nazi associations.
Eighty-four years later, in 2025, neo-Nazi sympathizers quietly entered the German military cemetery at Maleme, just outside Chania, and laid a wreath on the grave of Bruno Bräuer. Bräuer served as the senior German occupation commander in Crete for over two years and was convicted of war crimes in Athens in 1946 before being executed. He is buried alongside his soldiers at Maleme.
The wreath left on his grave carried the inscription "All for mutual loyalty," a military phrase now banned in Germany because of its association with the Nazi regime. Maleme cemetery has drawn visits from both old and new far-right figures for decades, with some treating it as a pilgrimage site honoring what they call a feat of military history.
The cemetery sits outside Chania as a reminder of one of the most brutal chapters of the wartime occupation of Greece. Crete's civilians paid an especially heavy price during the years that followed the battle, with German reprisals against the local population leaving entire villages destroyed.
