 Memorial at theKaisariani shooting range | |
 | |
| Date | May 1, 1944 (1944-05-01) |
|---|---|
| Type | Executions |
| Motive | Reprisal for thekilling of Major GeneralFranz Krech by Greek Resistance forces,Anti-communism |
| Participants | Nazi occupation authorities |
| Deaths | 200 |
| Burial | 3rd Athens Cemetery |
On 1 May 1944, 200Greekcommunists (Greek:Οι 200 της Καισαριανής, "The 200 of Kaisariani") were executed at the firing range of theAthens suburb ofKaisariani by theNazioccupation authorities asreprisal for the killing of a German general byGreek Resistance forces.
Greece had been under the dictatorial and fiercely anti-communistMetaxas Regime since 1936. Members of theCommunist Party of Greece were persecuted and put in prison, chiefly in theAkronauplia andCorfu prisons, or sent tointernal exile in smallislands. With theGerman invasion of Greece and the start of theAxis Occupation of Greece in April 1941, the communist prisoners were placed under German control. Following the Italian surrender in September 1943, most of the communist prisoners, formerly held in the Italian-runLarissa concentration camp, were moved toHaidari concentration camp in the northwestern suburbs of Athens.[citation needed]
On 27 April 1944,ELAS partisansambushed and killed the German generalFranz Krech and three other German officers atMolaoi inLaconia. As a retaliation, the German occupation authorities announced via proclamation the execution of 200 communists on 1 May, as well as the execution of all males found by the German troops outside their villages on theSparti–Molaoi road. In addition, the German proclamation reported that "under the impression of this crime,Greek volunteers on their own initiative killed a further 100 communists".[1][2]
On 30 April, the news of the impending executions spread in the Haidari camp. Camp commandant Fischer called the workshop foremen, all former Akronauplia inmates, and asked which of the other prisoners could replace them, ostensibly as they would be moved to a different camp the next day, along with the inmates of theChalkis prison. Interpreting this "move" as a cover for their execution, all Akronauplia prisoners said their goodbyes to their comrades, and an impromptu farewell party was held in cell block 3 of the camp.[3] On the next morning, the Chalkis inmates were moved from the camp on trucks. Camp commandant Fischer then held a roll call and selected the 200 prisoners to be executed—almost all the former Akronauplia inmates (ca. 170), the former exiles inAnafi and a few who were imprisoned by the Germans.[2][3] According to eyewitness accounts, the prisoners reacted with defiance, singing theGreek national anthem, theDance of Zalongo song, and the song of the Akronauplia prisoners, even as the trucks arrived to take them off.[3]
The 200 prisoners were brought to theKaisariani rifle range, where they were executed in batches of twenty.[2] The corpses were buried in the 3rd Athens Cemetery.[3] Among the executed wereNapoleon Soukatzidis andStelios Sklavainas (known for theSophoulis-Sklavainas pact agreement before the war).
The executions were a seminal event of theGreek Resistance against the Axis forces, and resonate among the Greek Left to this day.
When on 1 May 1950 the celebration of theInternational Workers' Day was permitted for the first time since 1936 (theMetaxas Regime abolished it soon after), it was held at the Kaisariani shooting range. The crowd demanded amnesty for political offenses and the release of the over 20,000 political prisoners still held on the islandMakronisos and elsewhere following theGreek Civil War.[4]
On his June 1987 visit to Greece, German PresidentRichard von Weizsäcker chose the Kaisariani Memorial to commemorate the victims of World War II occupation in a move regarded with skepticism by conservative circles of both the Greek and German administrations. While there, Weizsäcker also mentioned the names of some other places in Greece where the GermanWehrmacht had perpetrated massacres:Kalavryta,Distomo,Kleisoura,Kommeno,Lyngiades, andKandanos.[5]
On 26 January 2015, thenewly elected leftistPrime Minister of Greece,Alexis Tsipras, visited the shooting range and laid roses on the memorial to the executions, as his first act after being sworn in. The move was widely interpreted as a symbolic gesture of defiance towards Germany and its role in theGreek government-debt crisis.[6]
In October 2017, the movieTo Teleftaio Simeioma ("The Last Note") by the acclaimed Greek directorPantelis Voulgaris, was released. It focuses on the story of the 200, with the German camp commandant, SS captain Karl Fischer (André Hennicke) and the Greek political prisoner and interpreterNapoleon Soukatzidis (Andreas Konstantinou) as the main characters.[7]
