Apostolos Santas (Greek:Απόστολος Σάντας; 22 February 1922 – 30 April 2011), commonly known asLakis, was aGreek veteran of theResistance against theAxis occupation of Greece duringWorld War II, most notable for his participation, along withManolis Glezos, in the taking down of the German flag from theAcropolis on 30 May 1941.
Apostolos Santas was born in 1922 inPatra, while his roots were from the Ionian island ofLefkada. His family moved toAthens in 1934. He completed his secondary education in Athens and was accepted to the law school of theUniversity of Athens, completing his law studies after the liberation of the country from Nazi occupation in 1944. On the night of 30 May 1941, he andManolis Glezos climbed on theAcropolis of Athens and tore down theNazi flag, which had been there since 27 April, when the Nazi forces had entered and occupiedAthens, leaving the flagpole empty. That was one of the first resistance acts inGreece. The act inspired the Greeks to resist occupation, and made the two into folk heroes.[citation needed] The Germans responded by sentencing Glezos and Santas to deathin absentia.[1][2]
In 1942, he joined the fledglingNational Liberation Front (EAM), and a year later the guerrilla forceELAS, with which he participated in several battles against the Axis troops throughoutCentral Greece.[3]
After the Occupation, because of his leftist beliefs, he was sent intointernal exile toIkaria in 1946, then toPsyttaleia in 1947 and finally to theMakronisos island in 1948. He managed to escape to Italy, from where he went toCanada where he was grantedpolitical asylum. He lived in Canada until 1962, when he returned to Greece, where he spent the rest of his life. On 30 April 2011 he died inAthens, aged 89. Santas received numerous awards from various institutions in Greece and otherAllied countries.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
 | This Greek biographical article is astub. You can help Wikipedia byexpanding it. |
