German War Cemetery Maleme

More than 15000 German soldiers lost their lives during the Second World War in the Greek territory. The German military cemetery in Maleme (Deutschen Soldatenfriedhof in Maleme) is one of the two cemeteries in Greece where the graves of German soldiers are.
The German cemetery is near Maleme airport on the north coast of Crete, 20 km western of Chania city and one kilometer above the village of Maleme. From here one can see far into the deep blue bay of Chania.
The basic idea of the memorial was to design the graveyard for the fallen soldiers according to the four main battle grounds of Maleme, Chania, Rethymnon and Heraklion.
The cemetery was founded in 1974 by the former German commander Gericke. At this area are buried 4.465 German soldiers who lost their lives in the island of Crete most of them were paratroopers who died during the invasion.