Historic photos of Nazi mass execution of Greeks returned to Greece, mayor calls for historical accountability

Axis powers during World War II should offer sincere reflection and apology, a Greek mayor said after Greece successfully repatriated a rare collection of 262 World War II-era photographs.

Greek officials traveled to Belgium to negotiate with the seller and brought the photographs back to Greece, after they were put up for sale online by a Belgian collector, said the Greek Culture Ministry.

The images were taken by Wehrmacht lieutenant Hermann Heuer, who served in Greece from 1943 to 1944, during World War II, and part of the collection documents the mass execution of Greek communists by Nazi troops in Kaisariani, east of Athens.

During World War II, German occupation in Greece met with fierce resistance. On May 1, 1944, German forces executed 200 Greeks at the Kaisariani firing range in retaliation for the killing of a German general by resistance fighters.

A memorial and a museum were set up after the war in Kaisariani to commemorate those who died in the mass execution.

“The photos really shocked us all because they were real documents from the day of the execution. We are shocked for many reasons. An important reason is that the 200 communists were singing with their heads held high before the execution in the photos, and they were not mourning because they were fighters,” said Ilias Stamelos, mayor of Kaisariani.

The newly recovered photographs have drawn renewed attention to the historical trauma still felt in the community, as the images provide a direct visual record of the final moments of those executed.

In 1987, then German President Richard von Weizsaecker visited Greece and made a special stop in Kaisariani, reflecting on the profound suffering inflicted on the Greek people by Germany during World War II.

Ilias said that, like Germany, Japan, another Axis power during the war, should also be held accountable for the massive harm it caused to multiple countries and should offer sincere reflection and apology for its wartime aggression.

“And I think it’s a common demand, because those responsible for the deaths in the World War II need to pay for what happened. It’s known to all that back then it was Germany, Japan and Italy, the allies in this war, that each played different roles in the war, yet they do have common responsibilities,” said the mayor.

Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi said in a social media post on Sunday that he had exchanged views with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on the ongoing regional conflict involving the United States, Israel and Iran.

In the phone call, Araghchi noted that the United States and Israel have been attacking Iran’s industrial infrastructure, hospitals, schools, residential areas, and nuclear facilities, emphasizing the need for urgent action by relevant international institutions, especially the International Atomic Energy Agency, to condemn these attacks and hold the aggressors accountable.

Araghchi also referred to the U.S. threats to attack Iranian energy facilities, saying this rhetoric is a clear admission of committing war crimes.

Meanwhile, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a press release on Sunday that the two ministers stressed that “reckless and illegal attacks” on Iran’s civilian, industrial and energy facilities, including the Bushehr nuclear power plant, must be halted.

They warned that such actions pose a threat to the plant workers’ lives and health and could lead to a radioactive disaster affecting the broader region.

The ministers spoke out against any actions that could undermine the remaining chances for promoting political and diplomatic efforts to settle the crisis.

Lavrov expressed the hope that efforts by certain countries to de-escalate the tensions around Iran would succeed, adding that the United States’ abandoning the language of ultimatums and returning to negotiations would be instrumental.