The Athenian - Macedonian agency at the site of the EAT-EESA torture in Piraeus

In the heart of the neighborhood of Kaminiia in Piraeus, next to the lines of the OSE, on the border with Agios Ioannis Renti, is the old camp «Papadogeorgis», where during the junta period, anti-dictatorial fighters were imprisoned and martyred. Almost half a century later, the monuments of the brutality of the Colonels« junta remain »alive", despite the abandonment of the site, an area of about 12 acres.

«This is the place where the company of the Hellenic Military Police operated during the dictatorship, the local EAT-HSA (Special Investigative Department of the Greek Military Police), the local place of torture and imprisonment of people arrested by the dictatorship. Fighters of the anti-dictatorship struggle have passed through and this place remained until the end of the dictatorship, while afterwards it functioned as a recruitment office for many years,» Nikos Belavilas, professor of urban planning and history of the city at the National Technical University of Athens and municipal councillor of Piraeus, explains to APE-MPE.

Torture during interrogations took place in the EAT-ESA buildings and according to testimonies from the military trials, the doctrine of the EAT-ESA was: «Friend or cripple comes out whoever comes in here».

In the camp «Papadogeorgis» the 952nd company of the ESA was stationed. It was a place with several buildings, in which many prisoners were tortured with extremely cruel and inhuman methods. References to this place were made during the trial of the junta's torturers at the end of 1975. Among those who testified was Alekos Zographos, who had been arrested on 21 April 1969. «Captain Laocrates» of the ELAS, as Alekos Zographos« nickname was, specifically mentioned in the trial that followed what he experienced in the 952nd company of the NSA: ’I was ordered to remain standing. But I was exhausted and fell to the ground. Then they picked me up and took me to the disciplinary room, which was behind the kitchen of 952 Company. They handcuffed my hands and the chains from the handcuffs were passed through the handrails of the only window. That left me literally hanging six inches off the ground. I was getting whiplashes all over my body...».

A few years after the collapse of the junta, the place served as a recruitment office, while later, homeless and all kinds of suffering people found temporary or long-term accommodation.

Reportage by Vicky Papatzikou
Video: Mr. Sorovos
Photos: O. Panagiotou