The railway station of Lianokladi was an important junction on the Athens–Thessaloniki railway line. In the spring of 1943, it was one of the locations included in the railway expansion works carried out within the framework of the VIADUKT program, carried out by the Organisation Todt (OT). In May 1943, Lianokladi was one of the 10 OT-construction directions (Bauleitungen) that operated in Greece and it was named after the location (“Lianokladi“).[1] Thousands of workers were employed to improve the railway alignment of the station, carry out related works at nearby points of the network, and construct Wehrmacht fortifications. Very little information survives about the camp at Lianokladi. According to one testimony, it was located near the railway station, on the side of the Spercheios River, from whose banks sand was frequently extracted for the various construction works. According to another source, the camp covered an area of approximately 800 square meters and was surrounded by barbed wire. As in other camps, the workers’ living quarters consisted of a large wooden building designed by the Todt Organization, divided into four equally sized spaces without beds or straw, forcing the inmates to sleep on the dirty floor. Two additional small huts served as storage areas—one used as a kitchen and the other for storing tools and firewood for the kitchen. About ten meters from the camp there was another hut and a storage building where members of the Todt Organization responsible for specialized tasks were accommodated.
As in all Todt construction sites, conditions were extremely harsh. In late March and April 1943, 500 Jews from Thessaloniki were sent to the Lianokladi camp for forced labor on the railway. One of the survivors reports that living conditions were somewhat better than in other work sites (Thebes and Karya), although the prisoners had reached the point of eating even turtles, which they boiled in tin containers after first breaking their shells.[2] The Jewish prisoners were later replaced by 400 Yugoslav prisoners of war who had also been transferred from Thessaloniki; when they saw the Jews, they described them as resembling living skeletons. In August 1943 there were in total 290 Serbs and 153 Greek political prisoners in Lianokladi, whom the Germans had transferred from Averoff and Syngrou prisons. Contemporary documents note that the “condition [of the Serbs] is extremely tragic,” while regarding the Greeks it is stated that “the condition of these people is miserable in every respect; they are all naked and barefoot and deprived of everything.”[3]
According to testimonies and bibliographical sources, the forced laborers at Lianokladi were sent in groups to work at various nearby construction sites. We know that 160 Jews were sent from there to work on the repair of the blown-up bridge of Asopos.[4] Until its restoration, 200 Greeks (Jews and non-Jews) along with 150 Yugoslav prisoners worked continuously loading and unloading trains on both sides of the bridge, mainly at the nearby train station of Gravia[5] and at Agia Marina, where about 120 Yugoslav prisoners loaded all kinds of materials from trains onto ships and vice versa. In early September 1943 the Lianokladi camp was shut and all the prisoners were transferred to the Domokos camp.
[1] Klaus Böhm, Die Organisation Todt im Einsatz 1939-1945 dargestellt nach Kriegsschauplätzen auf Grund der Feldpostnummern (Quellen zur Geschichte der Organisation Todt, hrsg. Hedwig Singer), Band 3, Biblio Verlag: Osnabrück 1987, p. 637.
[2] Testimony of Albertos Saul, cited in: Erika Kounio-Amarilio, Albertos Nar (Eds.), Proforikes martyries evreon tis Thessalonikis gia to Olokaftoma, Evrasia Publications, Athens 215, pp. 393-399.
[3] DAEES Archive, TB N. 16, GRK, Welfare Committee for Disabled Persons/Lamia Branch to the GRK, Lamia, 18.8.1943 and 26.8.1943.
[4] NARA, T311-R332, fr. 6289856, Geheime Kommandosache. Berichte über die Reise im Bereich Ob. Südost, vom 26.6-9.7.43. Oberstleutnant d.G. Boehncke. OKW.WFSt/Op. H. Nr. 003403/43/g.Kdos/ F.H.Qu. 13 Juli 1943. Επίσης, BArch, RH47/331 Asopos Brücke Technische Bericht, p. 9.
[5] NARA, T311- R 173, fr.001161,Oberkommando des Heeres.Heeresgruppe E. Ο.Qu – Ausenstelle Athen der Heeresgruppe E. Br. B. Nr. 2882/ 9.11.43.
