After there had been resistance activities in the area in the previous month, units of the 164th Infantry Division attacked the high-lying villages of Ano and Kato Kerdyllia in the early morning of October 17, 1941 as part of a large-scale "retaliation" - ostensibly in search of partisans and weapons . All over 200 male residents between the ages of 16 and 60 who were arrested were rounded up and executed, after which the villages were burned down. In the daily report from General Field Marshal Wilhelm List to the OKW of October 18, 1941, it said: “The villages of Ano-Kerzilion and Kato-Kerzilion at the mouth of the Strimon burned down, because they proved to be the support of the Nigrita gang. All male residents (202) shot ".