Rare photographic documents have been displayed in the Zappeion Hall and in nine metro stations in Athens. The exhibition with 360 historical photographs runs under the auspices of the Ministry of Infrastructure, Transport and Networks.
The title of exhibition:
“I don’t forget. A picture speaks a thousand words.”
What do these exceptional documents show? The German atrocities in Greece during the occupation in the WWII.
The exhibition is organized by the NGO “I don’t forget“.
Why are the pictures displayed in the Metro stations? Because “the Metro wants to link the residents of Athens to culture,” so an official statement.
I could not find out who is/are the photographers of this rare material or whether they belong to some archive. I was not able to find a reliable source explaining who, what, why.
Last April, Alternate Defense Minister Kostas Isychos, minister in first SYRIZA government, announced that the Ministry was in procession of the so-called Wehrmacht Archive, 400,000 records of German occupation in Greece, and that the material was about to be digitized. The Defense Ministry had displayed a shocking video based on the Wehrmacht Archive.
In short: I have no much of a clue about the new project: Metro transporting culture & people.
I’m sorry, but I see absolutely no connection between “Atrocities” and “Culture”. Unless the Metro and the Ministry had the fine art of photography in mind… and yet.
By all respect to organizers, normally such exhibitions with historical documents and thus displaying such a horror are being displayed on the occasion of some actual events, national remembrance days usw.
OK, I think I can accept right now with very contemporary link: Greeks should be reminded of the war atrocities in general and help refugees as much as they can.
other pictures in zougla.gr
But really this concerns Germany and the question should be “Why so late?”
I dont understand what you mean by “Why so late?”
Perhaps they should also show priests of the Greek Orthodox church with their right arms up in the air. But I guess they don’t have the nerve for that. Or show how returning Jews (=refugees) that survived the death camps were treated in Greece (and many other countries). What is the point of this all other than inciting some sort of negative feelings towards Germany and the Germans? It is cheap and disrespectful to use the victims of that brutal war for propaganda purposes.
I disagree, people who are stupid enough to equate modern day people with the perpetrators of the past will always find a way to blame those they want to blame.
On the other hand anyone truly studying ww2 and the holocaust should understand that there is no inherent “germaness” to these crimes but rather that given the right circumstances the potential for such atrocities slumbers in each and every human being, and that is a point worth revisiting(f.e. through such an exhibition)
And finally as KTG says in the last sentence, this might be a good reminder for those that want to send war refugees away.
Can you provide any photos of priests or their arms? As far as I remember one member of Syriza was helping thousands of Jews escaping to Palestine via Turkey, so your accusations make not much sense and the pissed Germans already missed the exhibition.