Now & Then: Greece

I came back from a one week-trip to Greece with the freshmens of my school in Sweden. As we only visited Athens and the little village of Delphi, there was not alot of WW2-sites to experience, although I managed to find two of them.

First is the Flagpole of Acropolis, this was the first place the Germans visited after taking Athens on April 27, 1941. They raised a flagpole with the swastika at the top.

Then:

Germans raising the flag
- Notice the man with the pistol in the air, what is he doing, shooting a flare?

Now:

A new pole with new types of Germans, armed with cameras instead.

Then:



Now:


The plaque's writings were only in greek, but I have found an explanation.
On May 30, 1941, Apostolis Santas and Manolis Glezos tore down the Nazi flag. This is said to be one of the first resistance actions in the entire ETO.

This is a bit funny because my uncle's father-in-law is said to have ripped down flags in Oslo during the occupation of Norway.

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During our bustrip to Delphi I saw something that looked like a monument flashing by my window. Thanks to Google Earth, I could track down the road we traveled and soon find the monument.

I had found the Memorial of the Distomo Massacre:
From Wikipedia:

Since the busdriver didn't want to stop, I had to take a picture from flickr.




So long.

Erik Halldin.

 

Nice pics, thanks for sharing

 

yes indeed - well done

as for the flare gun - i dunno

 

I wonder if the flare gun was a signal for others down the mountain to mark the raising.

 

It was an age old method of demoralizing your foe. It would work all to well at the acropolis. The combined flash and sound would result in many people looking towards the Parthenon... Only to see a Swastika.

 

Very nice pics! Thanks for sharing! I absolutely love the "then and nows"!!

 

Very nice pictures! Now if only they had pictures from 2000 years ago, there'd be even more "Now & Then" locations in Greece.