The events of the Kokkinia Blockade—a refugee area marked by significant resistance activity—represent one of the most traumatic chapters in modern Greek history.
Five months after the first blockade and the bloody battle of Kokkinia (March 4-8), German forces surrounded the neighbourhood. Early in the morning on August 17, German troops and Evzones Battalions invaded Kokkinia, rounding up all men aged 15 to 60 in the square of Osias Xenis. Following the instructions of masked informants, they tortured and subsequently executed 72 men and 3 women (other sources report 78 executed) in the adjacent wall of the carpet factory. Street battles ensued, leading to the murder of many more individuals and the arson of houses, resulting in hundreds of casualties.
The orgy of violence ceased in the afternoon. The Fifth Police Station transported 72 bodies for burial at the Third Cemetery and the others to the Analipsis Cemetery. Thousands of men who escaped execution were taken as hostages to the Chaidari concentration camp. Of these, 1,200 were sent to Nazi camps, and 335 never returned.
The Germans unleashed bloodshed in Kokkinia for the third time on September 24, 1944, shooting into the gathered crowd during the memorial service in the square of Osias Xenis.