During the period of the Axis occupation of Greece a large number of German anti-fascist soldiers defected from the ranks of the German armed forces and joined the Greek partisans of the Greek People's Liberation Army, Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós ). ELAS was the military wing of the National Liberation Front . Defections accelerated from the summer of 1943 onwards, as military units belonging to the penal 999th Light Afrika Division were transferred to Greece. Initially the German anti-fascists were directly integrated into ELAS divisions and were not organized in special, independent, German partisan units. Soon, however, inspired by the creation of the National Committee for a Free Germany by anti-fascist German soldiers and officers in the Easter Front, plans were made to set up a similar committee in Greece. Another similar Committee who sympathized with the resistance was created by German soldiers, prisoners of war, defectors and emigrants on the Western front known as "Free Germany Movement for the West”, officially Comité Allemagne libre pour l'Ouest ).
Foundation of the AKFD
Two persons were central in the creation of the AKFD - Anti-Fascist Committee for a Free Germany in Greece.
Falk Harnack, who had been working directly at ELAS headquarters in Kastania, Trikala since early 1944.
Gerhard Reinhardt, who wrote the German-language call for the founding of the Antifascist Committee Free Germany in the EAM newspaper Eleftheri Ellada in 1944.
At the end of July 1944, after discussions with a Soviet military mission, there was a meeting in ELAS headquarters in Kastania, Trikala between the ELAS High Command, Falk Harnack and Gerhard Reinhardt. The meeting was attended by the ELAS commander, Stefanos Sarafis, the ELAS legal advisor, Konstantinos Despotopoulos, and EAM's Minister of CulturePetros Kokkalis. The formal foundation of the AKFD took place on August 10, 1944, at the same time as an "Appeal to all German soldiers in Greece" written in German was published in the EAM newspaper Eleftheri Ellada to actively fight against Hitler's Wehrmacht. The AKFD was recognized by telegram from the management of the NKFD in Moscow. From the end of August, radio broadcasts from the NKFD from Moscow were also regularly listened to at the EAM-ELAS headquarters.
Structure of the AKFD
The AKFD was headed by the central committee, consisting of the political director, Falk Harnack, Gerhard Reinhardt, who was responsible for organizational matters, and other members, mostly defectors from the XXI Fortress Infantry Battalion of the penal 999th Light Afrika Division, who later became commanders of the Company units that were formed. These were to be made up of the German soldiers already fighting at ELAS, and were to be further strengthened by prisoners of war and defectors of Wehrmacht, who were converted to the cause through propaganda. The Company units were be assigned to an ELAS regiment or division, organized in groups of 30 men, which in turn were be divided into cells of 10 men. From 14 August 1944, three instructors set out to organize the German anti-fascist defectors in Greece in different AKFD units along various geographical areas of Greece: Falk Harnack, who used the alias "Ikarus", operated in the areas of the central highlands and towards the west coast of Greece, close to the borders with Albania. Harnack organized the following units:
Rumeli Company directly under the command of ELAS headquarters
Agrinion Company with 21 men with commander and political director Kurt Lohberger linked to the 34th and 42nd ELAS regiments
Gerhard Reinhardt operated in the northeast areas of Greece, areas close to the city ofVolos and towards Thessaloniki and remained close to the 13th ELAS division. Reinhardt organized the following units:
Volos Company with 51 men, then until October 1944 about 90 men, command Willi Schrade with the 54th ELAS regiment.
Larisa Company with 38 men, under the command of Erich Klose
Saloniki Company with about 30 men since Sept./Oct. 1944 at the 11th ELAS division; this company was formerly known as "German Antifascist Committee of Macedonia, Free Germany"
Kurt Adam was to travel to the Peloponnese in Tropaia, Arcadia, to work with the 3rd ELAS division in order to organize approximately 60 German anti-fascists in AKFD companies in the south parts of Greece, in Peloponnese, at the end of August 1944. However, according to Falk Harnack, Kurt Adam defected to British units on his journey.
