15| The execution of 200 in Kaisariani, 1/5/1944

On May 1, 1944, 200 communists were executed in retaliation for the deaths of four Germans in Molai. Early in the morning, the condemned—political prisoners and exiles—were transported by truck from the Chaidari camp to the Kaisariani Shooting Range. During the journey, they sang songs, wrote notes to their loved ones and comrades, and tossed them out of the truck.

Despite Archbishop Damaskinos’s desperate attempts to secure amnesty, the executions were carried out by noon. Blood flowed freely, staining the earth and streaming through the streets along the grim procession to the Third Cemetery. There, in the northwest section, 200 individual graves awaited, yet no one knew the names of the victims. Their clothes were handed over to the Αrchdiocese that same day, leading to another tragedy: the identification of the deceased…

“I picked up a jacket. The elbows were severely worn. […]

In another jacket, there was an ID card—just a name. In the next one, nothing at all, not even that. In another, there was a note. […]

By evening, the warehouse was empty, and the wailing had ceased.

Those despicable Nazis were onto something —refusing to give the names.”
Ioanna Tsatsou, Occupation Papers, Athens 1966

As no family knew where their loved one was buried, each one took responsibility for a grave, placed the name of their relative on it, and tended to it. Identification was completed during the exhumation, years later, with the assistance of the Panhellenic Association of Occupation Victims “The Phoenix.” The remains of the executed were gathered in the western section of the cemetery with the intention of erecting a mausoleum for their preservation.

TESTIMONIES:Dionysis Christakopoulos, whose father was among those executed, recounts: “We didn’t learn the terrible news on the same day. The next day, my grandmother, who lived in Peristeri, let us know. A few days later, they sent us my father’s clothes. As soon as my mother saw the package, she passed out. I was the one who opened it and found among the clothes a photograph of my mother with my little sister, which was in a glass frame that was taped. Written on it was: Dimitris Christakopoulos, 1 May ’44, they are taking us for execution.”
Antonis Floutzis, Chaidari, Castle and Altar of National Resistance, Athens 1986.Victoria Georgoula and Katina Tsirka-Flountzi, members of the first board of the Panhellenic Association of Occupation Victims 1941-44, recount the burial of 200 executed individuals at the Third Cemetery:“As we were informed by the gravediggers and employees of the Third Cemetery, on the night before May Day, they received orders from the German authorities to open 200 individual graves. By the time the bodies were brought in, the graves had already been prepared in the northwest section of the cemetery.
“We had 200 graves ready in a square formation, with 8 rows of 25 graves each,” one of the employees told us. He continued:
“They were transported in trucks. All were dressed. Blood was dripping from the trucks. They were still warm. Some appeared to be breathing. One worker, visibly moved, stated, ‘At one point, I heard faint moans. However, the Germans, with their guns and loud voices, pushed us, hit us, and forced us to work quickly to finish the burial as soon as possible.’”

This account is published in the book by Antonis Flountzis, Chaidari: Castle and Altar of National Resistance, Athens 1986.