In June 1945, the Greek government formed the Central Committee for the Verification of German Atrocities on Crete, with N. Kazantzakis, I. Kalitsounakis and I. Kakridis as its members. Suffering unbelievably adverse conditions, they travelled through Crete with the photographer K. Koutoulakis.

In his letters to Eleni, Kazantzakis described the tragic images of the grief-stricken population, total destruction and villages in ruins. Several of these same images were later to be incorporated into Freedom and Death.