What started as a deeply personal quest for George C. Alexandrakis, a professor emeritus of physics at the University of Miami College of Arts & Sciences, has since become a momentous event in Greek historic preservation, gaining international recognition.
Alexandrakis sought to identify the remains of his father, grandfather, and two great-uncles, all of whom were executed by Nazi forces in Adele, a village in Crete, Greece, during World War II, as well as the remains of other victims in his village.
“This was about restoring dignity,” Alexandrakis said.
Alexandrakis’ family members were among 18 people in Adele who were executed by Nazi troops on June 2, 1941, in retaliation for fierce local resistance during the Battle of Crete. The battle, which began on May 20, 1941, lasted for 10 days as locals, along with some small units of British, Australian, and New Zealander troops, fought Nazi paratroopers, ultimately deterring the Nazis from attempting any other major airborne attacks during the war.
“The attackers, after they won the battle having suffered such severe losses, were bent on revenge and started executing people in villages near the coast who had fought them,” Alexandrakis explained. “In the village of Adele, they executed 18 people ranging in ages from 16 to 67 and put them in a mass grave.”
The victims’ family members later recovered their loved ones’ remains and kept them in a small building they constructed on the execution site.
Alexandrakis’ effort, which he organized and funded, led to the successful identification of the skulls of all 18 victims using advanced DNA analysis. Alexandrakis’ family, all of whom are Canes, supported his efforts: Constantine Alexandrakis (J.D. ’93), the CEO of Russell Reynolds Associates; Eric Alexandrakis (B.S. ’94, M.M. ’96), a two-time Grammy-nominated artist; A. Platon Alexandrakis (B.S. ’01, M.B.A. ’07, J.D. ’07), an attorney and senior lecturer at the Miami Herbert Business School; and Aphrodite Alexandrakis (Ph.D. ’86), a retired professor of philosophy.
The process of identifying the remains began at the University of Crete, where Alexandrakis had previously organized the physics department. There, he recruited Nikos Poulakakis, a professor of biology at the University of Crete and group leader of the Paleogenomics and Evolutionary Genetics team at the Institute of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology, Foundation for Technology and Research Hellas.
Poulakakis and his research team started their work in 2022, and roughly a year later, Alexandrakis received the news for which he had been waiting.
“Professor Poulakakis called me and said, ‘We have the identification of your father, of your grandfather, and of everyone else,’” Alexandrakis recalled. Not long afterward, the findings were published in the scientific journal Forensic Science International: Genetics.
This effort was the first DNA analysis conducted on World War II victims in Greece that matched the victims’ remains to surviving family members. The identification was achieved by collecting blood samples from living relatives and comparing them with the DNA extracted from the remains.
The revelation of the victims’ identities brought closure to the families. “These people were thrown into a mass grave and stripped of their identities,” Eric Alexandrakis said. “By identifying them, we have given them back their names, their stories, and their rightful place in history.”
The impact of the project has extended far beyond the village of Adele. News of the effort spread across the world, with media outlets in Greece, the United States, Mexico, and Australia covering the story. Greece’s national public radio and television broadcaster even produced a documentary on the project.
At a public ceremony held at the execution site in 2024 on the 83rd anniversary of the massacre, the names of the 18 identified victims were disclosed with their remains. Villagers, reporters, church leaders, government officials, and a military honor guard, along with Alexandrakis and his family, attended the ceremony. The victims’ skulls, which family members had previously placed in a glass case in the small building constructed on the execution site, were labeled with brass tags to ensure that each individual was permanently recognized.
“It was incredibly emotional,” Eric Alexandrakis recalled. “The entire village participated, walking the same route that the Nazis forced our loved ones down to their execution site. It was a silent, somber moment of remembrance.”
As the village of Adele and the broader Greek community continue to commemorate those lost during World War II, this project ensures their sacrifice will never be forgotten.
