The Alternate Minister of National Defence Dimitris Vitsas on the commemoration of Distomo massacre by the Nazi occupation troops stated the following:
 
“On June 10, 2016, 72 years are completed since the Massacre in Distomo in 1944. This day is for us a day of commemoration and duty. The best homage we may pay to the victims of the Nazi atrocities is to maintain the historical remembrance and to conduct a constant struggle against Nazism and the facts that reproduce it. In parallel, another commitment of ours to the history of this land and to the memory of all Nazi victims is the historical vindication which will be marked by the vindication of the Greek claims on Germany’s reparations to Greece and the Greek people from World War II.

The Ministry of National Defence relates the issue of the historical remembrance directly to the very notion of the National Defence. The procedure of the assessment of the occupation period archives is being executed by the Army History Directorate and they shed light on known and unknown parts of Greek people’s torments and Greece’s devastations which formed part of a conscious effort for its annihilation, which has not been assessed yet. These archives prove undoubtedly that what was committed was not just a crime of war, but a crime against humanity as well.

The vindication of the Greek claims aims to heal a wound and help us move on; to a future Europe that knows its history and learns from it. Because when Europe ignores the dark pages of its history, sooner or later it is doomed to repeat them.

The issue of the historical memory is not pointless. It is imperative and has a large contribution to indicating us the way to the future. In the Ministry of National Defence we consider it of particular importance”.