Greece has announced its intention to acquire a series of photographs believed to capture the final moments of 200 Greeks executed by a Nazi firing squad in Athens during World War II.
The previously unknown images, which surfaced on an online sale site, offer a potentially unprecedented visual record of a notorious wartime atrocity.
The pictures, which appeared on eBay over the weekend, reportedly show the men being led to their deaths on 1 May 1944, at a shooting range in the Kaisariani suburb of the Greek capital.
Despite the executions being a well-documented historical event, no photographic or film documentation was previously known to exist.
Greece’s Culture Ministry stated on Monday that “it is very possible that these are authentic photographs,” confirming its efforts to obtain them for historical archives.
The images were put up for sale on Saturday by a Belgian collector specialising in German military memorabilia.
The series of photographs reportedly shows men being led through a gateway and down a path, before standing in a line against a wall.
The Kaisariani executions of 200 communist political prisoners represent one of the most brutal atrocities committed during the Third Reich’s occupation of Greece, remaining a seminal moment in the nation’s history.
As World War II ended, a vicious civil war between Western-backed government forces and communist fighters broke out and lasted until 1949. Its wounds have still not entirely healed.
Shortly after the photos were posted for sale, a memorial at the site to those killed was vandalised, with plaques listing their names smashed.
“Historical memory will not be erased, no matter how much it bothers some people,” Kaisariani municipality said in a statement posted on its Facebook page, adding that it would repair the monument.
The photos, it said, had caused “a chill of emotion for the heroic, valiant stance of the 200 communist heroes who stood up against the firing squad.”
The Culture Ministry said there were “quite a few legal complications” to lay claim to the pictures.
It said experts from the ministry were already in touch with the collector who put them up for auction and would be visiting him in Ghent, Belgium, to examine “the authenticity and legality of origin.”
A ministry committee also was to convene Wednesday to determine whether to classify the photographs as being part of Greek heritage.
If the images are determined to be both authentic and legally obtained, “the Culture Ministry will immediately finalize the measures for their acquisition through the appropriate legal means,” it said.