Greece recovers photos of Nazi mass murder
Greece has acquired a series of photos showing 200 communists being executed by a Nazi firing squad near Athens on 1 May 1944. The 263 previously unknown prints had been put up for auction on eBay by a Belgian collector specialising in military memorabilia, but were withdrawn after Greek authorities intervened. A complex issue for the Greek press.
National heritage not a collector's item
These photos have great historical and moral value, HuffPost Greece stresses:
“Behind every picture lies a story that does not belong to any private individual. It belongs to the memory of a people. ... These are not just photos. They are national cultural heritage. They are living testimonies to one of the darkest moments of the Occupation. Of people who stood up to the Nazis with courage and dignity, even though they knew what fate awaited them. These images do not belong on the collectors' market, they belong to the collective memory. They are documents of truth. They remind us that history cannot be erased, sold or falsified.”
Just confiscate such material
Haniotika Nea is incensed by the fact that the prints had to be paid for:
“So now we've reached the point where we're buying photos from perpetrators. They commit atrocities, photograph them, and we as victims have to pay large sums of money to obtain the material, instead of it being summarily confiscated, perhaps with the threat of punishment. Just try taking a photo of an ordinary citizen without their consent and then selling it. ... You'll see what happens to you. But when someone is killed or abused, these photos have commercial value and generate legal profits.”