Man tells of pleasure as misplaced photographs present his grandfather being led to Nazi execution | EUROtoday

Thrasivoulos Marakis grew up listening to tales in regards to the grandfather he was named after however who he by no means met — about how the tall man was executed throughout Nazi reprisals in Greece throughout World War II.

For a long time, the one picture Marakis had of his grandfather got here from a worn household portrait image.

But final month one other {photograph} emerged. An on-line public sale contained {a photograph} displaying his grandfather strolling calmly towards a firing squad alongside different prisoners.

The picture shook the Marakis household and has stirred highly effective feelings throughout Greece, the place the execution of 200 prisoners by Nazi occupation forces on May 1, 1944 stays one of many nation’s most poignant symbols of wartime resistance.

For Marakis, the pictures carry a deeply private which means.

“They went to their deaths with their heads held high so that we could be free today,” he mentioned.

On Thursday, the Culture Ministry offered the chilling pictures of the execution — the primary verified pictures ever made public — after buying the gathering from a personal collector in Belgium.

Marakis, who lives on the island of Crete, mentioned he acknowledged the tall, broad-shouldered man on the entrance of 1 group — sleeves rolled up, striding ahead along with his head held excessive — as his grandfather, 40-year-old dairy farmer Thrasivoulos Kalafatakis.

He confirmed the picture to aged kin and their buddies, together with a 97-year-old lady who lives regionally.

“That’s when I got the final confirmation,” he instructed The Associated Press. “It was very moving for the family — deeply, deeply moving.”

The {photograph} reveals prisoners strolling below guard towards the Kaisariani firing vary in Athens, the place they had been executed in teams of 20 in a reprisal for a resistance ambush that killed a German commander in southern Greece.

The Greek authorities bought the archive from a Belgian collector for 100,000 euros ($115,700). It contains 262 pictures taken by German Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who was stationed in Greece in 1943–44, together with wartime banknotes and press clippings from the interval.

Presenting the fabric in Athens, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni mentioned the photographs present highly effective documentation of Nazi occupation insurance policies and restore particular person identities to victims lengthy identified primarily by way of written accounts.

“The value of this collection is immense,” Mendoni mentioned. “The photographs…are priceless, because they give a face and a visual dimension to historical testimonies.”

“What matters is how the Greeks faced the Nazi system with courage,” she added.

Several pictures present the prisoners’ last moments.

One sequence depicts vans transporting detainees alongside filth roads from the Haidari jail camp exterior Athens to the firing vary east of town heart. Another picture reveals the lads coming into the taking pictures vary, the place piles of coats are stacked close to the gate.

Valentin Schneider, a researcher on the University of Athens’ Department of History and Archaeology who helped confirm the photographs, mentioned the element was important.

“Most likely it was on the orders of the German army,” Schneider mentioned. “To make the bullets penetrate more easily, they asked them to remove their coats and heavy clothing.”

Other pictures seize moments hardly ever documented: one reveals the moment the photographs are fired, whereas one other depicts the executed prisoners mendacity on the bottom, all fallen backward.

Historians say such visible data are extraordinarily uncommon.

During the Nazi occupation of Greece from 1941 to 1944, German commanders often ordered executions of hostages or civilians after resistance assaults.

Many of the prisoners killed at Kaisariani had been arrested years earlier by Greece’s prewar authoritarian authorities for communist political exercise and remained imprisoned when German forces occupied the nation.

The 200 prisoners had been shot in response to the ambush and killing of a Germany navy commander in southern Greece by resistance fighters.

The archive additionally reveals one other facet of the German officer who took the pictures. Among the photographs are scenes from Heuer’s personal life — together with swimming close to Athens, visiting the Acropolis and spending time along with his household after returning to Germany.

Stavroula Fotopoulou, the top of the Culture Ministry’s division of antiquities and cultural heritage, mentioned the pictures mirrored a broader system inspired by the Nazi regime.

They “created a powerful propaganda machine, not only with professional photographers in the propaganda units, but by encouraging everyone — soldiers and their families — to take photographs,” she mentioned. “Why? So these images could be sent back home and build the impression of the Wehrmacht’s successes.”

Mendoni mentioned the official identification of individuals proven within the pictures will start instantly. Digital copies will likely be supplied to households of the victims in addition to establishments and museums that request them.

“In that moment, the Greeks — and these people in particular — showed true greatness,” Mendoni mentioned. “They reacted with bravery and dignity. That’s what we must hold on to.”

Marakis mentioned the photographs present his grandfather “stood by his beliefs and his ideology. He never renounced them”

He added: “If he had renounced them, he would have lived longer.”