Apostolos Santas & Manolis Glezos: Greek Folk Heroes Who Tore Down Swastika

The Nazis raise the Swastika over the Acropolis in Athens, Greece courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apostolos_Santas.

More than any other building, the Parthenon defines Greece.  As a child, I remember doing a project about the Parthenon, one of a number of ancient buildings in the Acropolis on a hill overlooking Athens, Greece.    Acropolis comes from akron, meaning highest point and polis, meaning city.  The building is no stranger to warfare as it was damaged during the 1687 siege by the Venetians when gunpowder stored inside was hit by a cannonball.

It is no surprise that on April 27, 1941, the Nazis claimed the city of Athens by planting their flag on the Parthenon.  Little did they know that only a month later, two university students, Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas, would climb the Parthenon in the dead of night, tear down the Swastika and replace it with the Greek flag.  It became known as one of the first acts of Greek resistance and the two became folk heroes.

Apostolos Santas, left, and Manolis Glezos, right, courtesy https://hellasforce.com/2015/05/30/.

Glezos and Santas, both teenagers at the time, discovered from a library book that the north side of the Acropolis contained a natural cave leading from the base to the top.  Used as a secret passage way in ancietn times, the duo figured that they could climb it undetected.  With only a flashlight and a pocketknife, the two teens sneaked into the cave in the dark of night.  They were disappointed to discover at the exit to the cave that the flagpole was 50 feet high.  It took them three hours to scale the flagpole.  Thrilled, they tore off the Swastika, took some swatches for souvenirs, and threw it to the ground.  They replaced it with the blue and white Greek flag.  Sentenced to death in absentia by the occupying Nazis, the two went into hiding.  Their mothers burned the Swastika swatches as well as diaries explaining their exploits.  The Nazis, however, did not know their identity at the time.

Greek guerillas during WWII courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_People's_Liberation_Army.

 

The mountainous country of Greece was long known for its guerilla warfare.  Santas joined one such force, ELAS, in 1943, participating in several battles against the Axis.  While Santas survived the war, because of his Communist leanings, he was again imprisoned under sentence of death in 1948. He escaped from the Makronisos Island prison, however, to Italy where he sought and received political asylum in Canada.  In 1962 he returned to Greece and to more turmoil.  He passed away in his homeland in 2011.

Glezos worked for both the Hellenic Red Cross and the Greek Resistance.  In March of 1942, he was arrested by the Nazis, imprisoned and tortured, contracting tuberculosis as a result of his mistreatment.  Freed, he was arrested again by the Italian occupying forces in 1943.  The Greek collaborators arrested him a third time in 1944; he escaped in September of that year.  The end of the Second World War did not signal the end of Glezos' persecution.  Greece erupted in a Civil War and with his Communist leanings, Glezos was imprisoned yet again.  In total he would spend 11 years in prison and 4 years in exile.  With the restoration of democracy in Greece n 1974 Glezos was elected a member of the Greek Parliament.  He continues his political protest activity to this day, arrested as recently as 2012 by riot police.

Manolis Glezos Communist stamp, with the Acropolis in the background, courtesy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Manolis_Glezos.

Swastikas, U-boats & Bulletproof Cars

Here are ten facts you may not know about World War II.

1.  World War II was the bloodiest conflict ever.  It cost more money, damaged more property and killed more people than any other war in history.

2.  For every five German soldiers killed, four died on the Eastern Front.

3.  It is estimated that 1.5 million children died in the Holocaust.  Approximately 1.2 million were Jews and tens of thousands were Gypsies.

4.  Eighty percent of Soviet males born in 1923 didn't survive World War II.

5.  Over 2 million German women were raped by the Red Army.

6.  Max Heiliger was the fictitious name the Nazis used to establish a bank account in which they deposited Jewish money, jewelry and gold.

7.  The word Nazi derives from a Bavarian word meaning "simple minded".  The word, originally used as a term of derision, was coined by journalist Konrad Heiden.

8.  The swastika derives from a Sanskrit word meaning "hooked cross".  Symbolizing fertility and good fortune, it has been found in the ruins of India, Egypt, Greece and China.

9.  Out of the 40,000 people who served in U-boats during World War II, only 10,000 returned.

10.  More Russians (civilians and military) lost their lives during the Siege of Leningrad than did American and British soldiers combined during World War II.

11.  The SS ran a brothel in Berlin for foreign diplomats and VIPs called The Kitty Salon.  Twenty prostitutes were hired and trained specifically to glean information from their clients through innocuous conversations.

12.  After the sneak attack on Pearl Harbor, President Franklin D. Roosevelt requested a bulletproof car.  However, presidents were only allowed to spend $750 on a car.  The only one available at that price was Al Capone's limousine, absconded when he went to jail for tax evasion.

Source:  facts.randomhistory.com

Siege of Leningrad photo courtesy weebly.com.