Greecewill claim a World War II photo trove posted for sale online believed to show for the first time one of Nazi Germany’s worst atrocities in the country, the culture ministry said Wednesday.
Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said an “entire collection” of photographs apparently taken by a German army lieutenant serving in wartime Greece had been declared a national monument “due to its particular historical value”.
“They allow us to frame the drama of occupied Greece also through the eyes of the occupier,” she said in a statement.
“With today’s declaration of the collection as a monument, the Ministry of Culture acquires the legal basis to claim it and acquire it on behalf of the Greek state,” Mendoni said.
Greek Communist party lawmaker Giorgos Lambroulis on Wednesday said the party had so far identified four men in the photographs.
Twelve of the photographs had originally appeared on the Ebay site Crain’s Militaria on Saturday before being taken down on Monday.
The ministry says the photographs appeared to show “the last moments” of 200 Greek Communists.
They were executed on May 1, 1944 in retaliation for the killing of a German general and his staff by Communist guerrillas a few days earlier.
The execution at the Kaisariani shooting range in Athens was a seminal event of the 1941-1944 Nazi occupation of Greece, which was marked by several atrocities, mostly against Greek villagers.
Greece’s Jewish community was also decimated during this period.
Source: Insider Paper
