Today marks eighty years since the liberation of Athens from the German occupation, with many actions and events planned for these days in the city center.

Shortly after 11:00 in the morning, our National Anthem was played on the Acropolis during the ceremony of raising the Greek flag, while at the same time the bells rang in the Holy Temples of the city, following the order of the Holy Archdiocese of Athens.

With a series of actions and events that have started since July, the Municipality of Athens celebrates the completion of 80 years since the liberation of the city. Especially on these days, the events culminate and among them one of particular importance, as the “Memory Walk 40-44” in the Third Cemetery, dedicated to the victims of the Occupation and Nazism who did not have time to live the Liberation.

It is a special memorial ceremony for the victims of the famine during the Occupation, but also for those executed, whose bodies are buried in the 3rd Cemetery and essentially this action reintroduces it to the public as a historical place of memory. Today Saturday (16:00), on the day of the anniversary, the Municipality of Athens will inaugurate this route, which will then also constitute a permanent exhibition, as the graves have been mapped and there will be special markings in the Cemetery for anyone who wants to visit the route . The action is part of the anniversary events “1974 & 1944: Athens celebrates its freedom” and is carried out by the Cultural Heritage Department of the City Planning Directorate of the Municipality of Athens in collaboration with the Athens Development Agency.

The route to the 3rd Cemetery

The route starts from the main entrance with an uphill course along the site, where victims of hunger, cold and disease were once buried in groups. He reaches the Memorial of the Executed and the graves. It continues towards the Military Department and then descends towards the Cemetery square, to meet the monuments of the National Resistance and the Aigaleos massacre.

The tour is both thematic and chronological, from the first year of the Occupation and the gloomy winter of 1941-42 to the executions of ’44. The route extends to graves of executed persons and continues to the Jewish Cemetery.

Dr. Dr. of Art History and head of the Cultural Heritage department of the Municipality of Athens Zetta Antonopoulos. The architect-pedagogue Eliza Neofytou participated in the museological curation and research, while in the research and the texts dr. of History-Archaeology Nana Iakovidou.

Eleni Zontirou: “We have not understood what memory exists in the 3rd Cemetery”

Speaking to APE-MPE, the president of OPANDA (Culture, Sports and Youth Organization of the Municipality of Athens), Eleni Zontirou, referred to the importance of this specific initiative:

“It is very important what will be done and it will be a permanent exhibition about the victims of hunger, cold and executions by the German occupation forces. And it is even more important that the municipality of Athens organizes it with its own forces and its own curators. The expertise of the employees will make the trip permanent, beyond the first tour. There will be a route to the graves, we are talking about 44,000 dead from hunger, cold and executions. So it is very important for both our memory and knowledge. We have not understood what memory exists in the 3rd Cemetery”.

And Mrs. Zontirou continues: “This is the first time something like this is being done and beyond the guided tour, there will be inscriptions leading to the graves as a permanent route. There is mapping for the permanent exhibition. It has been worked on by Mrs. Zetta Antonopoulou, who is the head of the Department of Cultural Heritage of the municipality of Athens. And there will be other guided tours, such as on October 19 at the Shelters of Athens, an event for which we collaborated with three municipal bodies, but also special actions for areas, such as for Pagrati of the Occupation. And there is even the action in the building of Korai 4, where it was a hell of torture and there will be a theatrical action edited by Akyllas Karazisis”.

Then Mrs. Zontirou says: “I consider all this very important for our memory. Without being in a mood of opposition, I cannot help pointing out that from 2019 to 2023, the Liberation of Athens was not on the Culture agenda of the municipal Authority. Only in the church that day and in the Acropolis and nothing else. We now wanted to bring back important historical events. ”I remember-I learn”. We look at our History because nothing is certain. Let Athens know its history, with its good and bad. Nothing should be taken for granted because of this and it is necessary to make historical events”.

And the president of OPANDA concludes: “Beyond the issue of cleanliness of the municipality or recycling, things are happening in Athens.”

Also, OPANDA has organized for today (11:00) a route in the center of the city, on the subject of sabotage, demonstrations and strike movements within the Occupation. And the other Saturday (19/10, 11:00) a historical route to Pagrati of the Occupation.

Also, the next Saturday (19/10) a guided tour of the Shelters of Athens is planned, with a meeting point (10:00) on the pedestrian street of Korai.

A place of historical memory and the basement of Korai Street 4, where it was her hell Commander. There, today and tomorrow (19:00), a group of graduates of the School of Drama of the Athens Conservatory create an artistic event under the guidance of Akylla Karazisi.

Tomorrow (13/10) and the following Sunday (20/10) three theater guides from the theater group “Windmills” will “travel” the public to the “unknown” Dorgouti of the Occupation and the Resistance. Events, persons and testimonies make up the material of the route in space and time, from the beginning of the last century until the “Block of Durgouti” (9/8/1944). Meeting point is the “Kasomouli” tram stop (19:00).

Three theater guides from the “Windmills” theater group will also present the “Unknown Stones of the Occupation and the Resistance” on 20/10 and 27/10, revealing aspects of History, such as the operation to clear the area of ​​the Old Slaughterhouses (21/8/ 1944), where together with the young people who were executed, all the houses in the district were set on fire. Meeting point ISAP Station “Petralona” (11:00).