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Acropolis

On 27th April 1941, the German swastika was raised on the Acropolis. The story goes that a certain Private Konstantinos Koukidis refused to hand over the Greek flag during the surrender – instead wrapping it around himself and jumping to his death – and, although it is disputed, there is a commemorative plaque at the site. It is also told that on 31st May of that same year, two University students tore down the swastika in the middle of the night, in in order to encourage resistance to the German forces.

<Plaque on the Acropolis commemorating the two university students

Caves of Philopappos

The caves located on Philopappos Hill in Athens – often referred to as the ‘Prison of Socrates’ – served as a secret wartime vault where the staff of where the National Archaeological Museum and local groups safely stored crated antiquities during WWII.

<The so-called Prison of Socrates on Philopappos Hill / Kerry Phelan

War Museum at Athens

The Museum presents artefacts, memorabilia and works of art focusing on Greek military history, from the ancient world to the present day. One gallery presents objects such as obsidian tools and bronze weapons relating to the Minoan and the Mycenaean periods, and also arms from Archaic and Classical Antiquity; in another room, students can follow the course of Alexander the Great’s army, as well as models of his armament and the siege mechanisms.

Other exhibits trace the Greek connection to Byzantium and Turkey, and the Greek Revolution of 1821. And lastly, the Museum has several galleries dedicated to WWI and WWII: in the former, Greece was aligned with the Entente forces, displaying weapons and pictures from the period; in the latter, Nazi Germany attacked and subsequently defeated the Greek state, with the final battle taking place against Allied forces in 1941 Battle of Crete, and the exhibit includes uniforms, photographs, and posters that document their experiences and difficulties.

<German loot from WWII on display at the War Museum, Athens

A visit to the Museum would certainly benefit A-Level History students in terms of providing perspective on the evolution of the Hellenic military, weaponry, and national-scale historical memory. Likewise, both GCSE Classical Civilization and A-Level Classics students would benefit from viewing the collection on warfare in Classical Antiquity, particularly the Athenian context from the 5th century BC.

Tomb of the Unknown Soldier

<Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, Athens

Distinctly classical in appearance, the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier commemorates battles from both WWI and WWII on decorative shields, and the epigraphy on the rear wall derives from Thucydides’ History of the Peloponnesian War.

Hotel Grande Bretagne

Adjacent to Syntagma Square and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, the Hotel Grande Bretagne served as Greek General HQ, then Wehrmacht HQ during the Nazi Occupation (and Hitler, Himmler, Goering, and Romel stayed there regularly), and then British Expeditionary Force HQ. The Hotel is also the location of the so-called ‘Christmas Eve Plot’ of 1944, when Greek Communist Guerillas nearly succeeded in blowing up the building when Churchill was in residence.

<Hotel Grande Bretagne

Korai 4

In the basement of the building at Korai 4 – approximately 8 mins from the Hotel Grande Bretagne – occupation forces established a transit prison and interrogation centre used by both the Italians and the Germans, and in which the Gestapo of the latter would often torture the detainees. Students can visit the fully intact underground cells and view the original wall inscriptions scratched into the plaster by its desperate prisoners.

6 Merlin Street served as the formal headquarters of the Gestapo and SS in Athens during the occupation, and it was known by its prisoners as the ‘Hell House’. Although the original building was replaced by a shopping centre during the 1980s, the entrance features a

memorial brass relief sculpture by Thanasis Apartis of an original prison cell door and representations of a hanging victim.

<Memorial at 6 Merlin Street 

Haidari Concentration Camp (Chaidari)

In the Athenian suburb of Haidari, the Germans set up a concentration camp that was in operation from 1943-1944. It was the largest and most notorious concentration camp in wartime Greece; the first Jews arrived at Haidari on 4th December 1943, and the first mass arrivals came about in late March, where over 5000 Jews from all over Greece were gathered there to be deported to the concentration camps in Poland. Today, admission to the camp is permitted only for Block 15, which has been declared a national monument site.

Holocaust Memorial

The Holocaust Memorial in Athens – located in the Thissio/Kerameikos neighbourhood – is made of Egyptian marble and was crafted to depict a broken Star of David. Unveiled in May 2010, it stands near the Synagogue on Melidoni Street, where many Jews were captured under a false ruse regarding food distribution.

<The Holocaust Memorial in Athens

The First Cemetery of Athens

Located near the entrance of the First Cemetery of Athens, the Mother of the Occupation is a sculpture by a Greek artist, named Kostas Valsamis, honouring the 100,000 Greeks who starved to death during the German occupation of Greece.

Valsamis based the monument on a tragic real-life scene he witnessed firsthand Piraeus in 1942, an infant attempting to nurse from its dead mother; a poem is inscribed on the base of the sculpture, by Panagiotis Gazgas,which urge its viewers to remember the deceased and pleads for peace and resistance against war.

<Mother of Greece in No 1 Cemetery / Sarah Thomason

The Third Cemetery of Athens

During the WWII, the Third Cemetery became a site associated with executions, famine victims, and wartime relief efforts, including children’s soup kitchens. Walking through the Cemetery, visitors can see the small mass graves which commemorate the civilians who died during the famine of 1941-1942 under Nazi Occupation, while other sections contain graves of Allied soldiers as well as Italian and German forces.

Phaleron War Cemetery

The Phaleron War Cemetery is a military burial ground in Alimos, Greece, that honours over 2,000 Commonwealth soldiers who died during WWII.

Kaisariani Shooting Range

The Kaisariani Shooting Range in Athens is a memorial site marking the site where the German occupying forces captured the city’s partisans and hundreds of Greek resistance fighters and political prisoners during WWII and ultimately executed them in front of firing squad.

<Kaisariani Shooting Range

42 Amalia Street and Prosfygika

42 Amalia Street and the Prosfygika complex in Athens are both iconic sites that bear the physical scars of WWII. Located across from the Temple of Olympian Zeus, 42 Amalia Street served as a rebel cover point and stronghold during the fierce clashes broke out in the city in December 1944, in the wake of the Axis withdrawal. The damaged facade was intentionally left untouched as a permanent public monument to the urban warfare. The Prosfygika complex, eight apartment blocks between 1933 and 1935, on Alexandras Avenue was a key location for resistance activities during German occupation, and this complex still shows the bullet and shrapnel marks.

Distomo Memorial (Dhistomou)

Distomo Village – near Hosios Loukas (Ossos Loukas) – was the site of the ‘Distomo Massacre’, one of the most heinous war crimes committed by Nazi forces during WWII. On 10th June, 1944, members of an SS unit killed almost all the village residents in retaliation for an earlier ambush by local partisans, in which several German soldiers were killed. In total, 218 villagers died, counting many women, children and elderly people among the victims.

A memorial is located on a hilltop overlooking the village. A chapel and ossuary, which contains the victims’ remains, are also part of the memorial site and all their names and ages are engraved there. Their names and ages are also to be found either side of the parish church door in the village.

<Monument of the massacre of Distomo in Greece, sector of memorial relief / AlMare Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Feel free to contact us to tailor your own tour. 01342 324727