Today, exactly 80 years ago,
Thursday then,
October 12, 1944, at around 8 a.m.,
The Germans lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to show they didn't come to the country as enemies.
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Then they climb up to the Acropolis, lower the swastika, and fight...
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It is the liberation of Athens after 1,624 days of occupation....
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These have been the most horrific three and a half years the capital has ever experienced.
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The Wehrmacht, after the horrific crimes it committed, is rightly characterized as the most heinous army ever assembled in Europe.
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German atrocities knew no bounds; they did not spare the elderly, women, or children.
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During the 1,624 days of occupation, the resistance movement that developed in the capital was so massive and powerful that even the Germans were often unable to cope with it.
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e.g.
In March 1943, the heroic people of Athens took to the streets en masse in a magnificent rally.
and finally manage to break into the ministry and burn the compulsory work records.
(the collaborators who ruled had compiled lists of people to send to Germany for forced labor)
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other
July 22, 1943, during the German occupation,
the EAM manages to organize and bring out onto the streets of Athens,
over 400,000 people, with the request:
«Macedonia and Thrace should not be ceded to the Bulgarians»
Result?;
30 protesters lost their lives,
300 injured
and 500 were arrested….
(How funny is it that the uneducated right-wingers, for endless years, called the EAM members "EAM Bulgarians"?
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Athens had one of the largest resistance movements in Europe.
the common people,
day laborers, civil servants, students, even schoolchildren,
joined the refugees from Asia Minor who were still living in shacks 18 years after the disaster
and
resisted with their bodies and lives against the German occupiers and their Greek collaborators
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The incredible thing is that the people did all this knowing that they would pay for it with blood, and yet they rose up...
continued to resist and pays in blood
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e.g.
at the Kokkinia Blockade in August 1944, where Germans and Greek traitors,
350 Greeks are executed and another 8,000 people are arrested.
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at the Kalogreza roadblock, in March 1944,
with over 400 people killed
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also, at the roadblocks
in
Nea Ionia,
Gouva,
Peristeri,
Laurel,
New World,
Nea Smyrni,
Kallithea, with approximately 10,000 prisoners,
of whom approximately 2,500 were sent to Germany for forced labor
while some 200 people were executed
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The stories of the blockades are utterly horrific.
(I have written in detail about many roadblocks in the past)
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However, apart from the roadblocks, Athens was destined to experience something even more horrific.
Is there anything more horrible?;
Of course there is.
late November 1943, Germans with Greek traitors
invade 19 hospitals in Athens,
and attack war invalids
of the Albanian front...
They tortured and killed war invalids, the monsters...
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And of course, the list would not be complete without,
the most emblematic moment of national resistance in Athens.
On May 1, 1944, at the Kaisariani shooting range, 200 Greek patriots are lined up against a wall and executed.
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The resistance of Athens is one of the most heroic and moving stories of our homeland.
and
All credit goes to the indomitable, simple Athenian people.
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P.S. Enjoy it while you can, because you don't have much time...
About 50 days later, the Greeks will start fighting amongst themselves...
The December events are coming, which will drown Athens in blood and turn it from a heroic city into a city of shame...
