Occupation and Resistance

Premiere: Sacremento, CA Film Festival 9/9/2005

Limited US Release 9/11/2005

In 1941, thousands of German paratroops dropped on to the island of Crete. After suffering horrendous casualties, they took the island, leading to yet another amphibious operation to evacuate Allied soldiers. Still, thousands of Greek, British and Commonwealth soldiers were captured.

Composer John Keltonic writes about his contribution to the upcoming PBS documentary about some of the first resistance to Hitler.

"A touching narrative on the nature of faith - powerful and shocking"
The New York Times

Jason,

King Leopold III, commander of the Belgian Armed Forces in 1940, had a strategic dilemma. Both the French and the Germans sought to make war with each other on his soil. Both had war plans that called for advancement into Belgium to fight the main force engagement that General Maurice Gamelin, the French commander, and General Erich von Manstein, the German commander, hoped would eliminate the other.

In their failed attempt to invade Greece, the Italians were driven out of Santi Quaranta, which Mussolini had renamed Proto Edda after his oldest daughter. Mussolini, embarrassed, had to ask Hitler to help his forces. In a fast moving campaign, the British were driven out of Greece and the Germans occupied Athens on April 27.