ATHENS, Greece — Greece said Monday it will seek to obtain a series of photos that appear to show the final moments of 200 Greeks who were executed by a Nazi firing squad in Athens during World War II, after the previously unknown pictures appeared on an online sale site.
The images that appeared on eBay over the weekend allegedly show the men being led to their deaths on May 1, 1944, at a shooting range in the Kaisariani suburb of the Greek capital. Although the executions were well known, there were no known photos or film documentation of the event.
Greece’s Culture Ministry said Monday that “it is very possible that these are authentic photographs,” adding that it will seek to obtain them as historical archives after they were put up for auction on eBay on Saturday by a collector in Belgium of German military memorabilia.
The series of pictures show men being led through a gateway and down a path. They stand straight as they are lined up in front of a wall.
The Kaisariani executions of 200 communist political prisoners were one of the worst atrocities during the Third Reich’s occupation of Greece and remain a seminal moment for the country.
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 vandalized, 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 would also convene on 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.