A previously unseen series of photographs have emerged showing the final moments of Greek prisoners before they were murdered by the Nazis.
The 12 pictures appear to show the last seconds before 200 Greek Communists were executed on May 1, 1944, in retaliation for the killing of a Nazi general and his staff by Communist guerilla fighters a few days earlier.
Haunting images show groups of men lining up against a wall as they are shepherded by their Nazi occupiers to a shooting range in the Kaisariani suburb of Athens.
Guenther Heysing, a journalist attached to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’s unit, is ‘highly likely’ to have taken the pictures.
Another image shows men being marched into the shooting range, after discarding their overcoats outside.
Although the executions were well known, there has been no known photographic documentation of the event until now.
The images were listed for auction on eBay on Saturday by a collector of Third Reich memorabilia. They are said to have originally come from the personal album of German lieutenant Hermann Heuer, Greek media has reported.
The Greek Ministry of Culture said it is ‘highly likely that these are authentic photographs’.
Haunting images show groups of men lining up against a wall as they are shepherded by their Nazi occupiers to a shooting range in the Kaisariani suburb of Athens
The 12 pictures appear to show the last seconds before 200 Greek Communists were executed on May 1, 1944
One man (left) appears to defiantly raise his hand moments before his execution, while others are seen lined up against the wall
Although the executions were well known, there has been no known photographic documentation of the event until now
The ministry said it was sending experts to Ghent, Belgium, to examine the photos and to talk to a collector of Third Reich memorabilia who had put them on sale on eBay on Saturday.
Greece was occupied by Nazi Germany between 1941 and 1944, a period marked by several atrocities against villagers and its Jewish community, who were decimated.
More than 40,000 people are believed to have starved to death in Athens alone.
The Communist-led Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) was among the most active resistance organisations in occupied Europe.
Many Communists had also been persecuted during anti-Communist raids by the police of Greek dictator Ioannis Metaxas.
Some of the pictures show groups of the men marching through a field, and standing against a wall at the shooting range.
‘This is the first time we have an image from inside the shooting range at the moment of the execution…a major moment of the Greek resistance movement,’ historian Menelaos Haralambidis told state TV ERT.
‘And it confirms the testimony we have, that these men headed (to their deaths) with their heads held high, they had incredible courage,’ Haralambidis said.
Until now, the only testimony of the 200 victims’ final moments were from handwritten notes they had thrown out of the trucks taking them to their execution.
Another image shows men being marched into the shooting range, after discarding their overcoats outside
One image shows men being marched to their death. The pictures are thought to have been taken by Guenther Heysing, a journalist attached to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’s unit
Most of the men had been arrested years earlier by Ioannis Metaxas.
The Greek Communist KKE party, which called the trove ‘priceless’ on Monday said it had tentatively identified at least two of the men in the photographs.
‘These documents belong to the Greek people,’ the party said.
‘I feel grateful that we were given the opportunity for my grandfather’s story to become known to everyone, a man who remained faithful to his beliefs until the very end,’ Thrasyvoulos Marakis, the grandson of one of the men identified in the photographs, said in a letter.
The Greek culture ministry said it was ‘highly likely’ that the photographs were taken by Guenther Heysing, a journalist attached to Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels’s unit.
‘If the authenticity and lawful provenance of the collection are documented, the Ministry of Culture will immediately finalise measures for its acquisition,’ it said.