The Culture Ministry has concluded a preliminary agreement with a Belgian dealer to acquire a collection of World War II photographs that includes images taken at the execution of 200 communists by the Nazis in Kaisariani, Athens, in 1944, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni has said.
In a statement, Mendoni said that the evaluation of Culture Ministry experts found the 262 photographs – part of the collection of Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who was stationed in Greece during the German occupation – to be genuine.
The announcement followed a meeting Friday at Evergem city hall in Belgium between a Culture Ministry delegation and Tim De Craene, a dealer in World War II militaria, who had posted the images for auction on the Ebay site last weekend.
“The macroscopic examination by experienced officials of the Culture Ministry and independent experts, confirmed the authenticity of the material,” Mendoni said, adding that “a preliminary agreement” had been signed with the collector for the ministry to acquire them.
As part of the agreement, De Craene, who runs the Crain’s Militaria business, withdrew the remaining photographs from Ebay.
Mendoni’s statement made no reference to the buying price, if any.
Mendoni said Heuer served from 1943 to 1944 at the Malakasa camp, northeast of Athens, and was allegedly ordered to observe or assist in the execution of the 200 Greek prisoners who were transferred from Haidari to the Kaisariani shooting range, on May 1, 1944.
The mass shooting at Kaisariani was carried out in retaliation for the ambush and killing of German Major General Franz Krech by communist partisans near Molaoi in the southern Peloponnese on April 27. One day earlier on Crete, British officers – including later travel writer Patrick Leigh Fermor – and resistance fighters had kidnapped Major General Heinrich Kreipe, the island’s military commander, and eventually spirited him off to Alexandria.
The appearance of the images on Ebay caused a sensation in Greece, leading to calls for the photographs to be acquired by a Greek museum or archive.
On Wednesday, the Culture Ministry declared the full photographic archive a protected monument, citing its exceptional historical value.
