{"id":13839,"date":"2026-03-30T00:56:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:56:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/the-execution-photos-and-the-ifs-of-history\/"},"modified":"2026-03-30T00:56:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-30T00:56:41","slug":"the-execution-photos-and-the-ifs-of-history","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/in-greece.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/30\/the-execution-photos-and-the-ifs-of-history\/","title":{"rendered":"The execution photos and the \u2018ifs\u2019 of history"},"content":{"rendered":"


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\u201cWhat would have happened if I had been born 20 years earlier?\u201d Hagen Fleischer wondered when he first saw the photographs of the 200 men executed in the Kaisariani shooting range on May Day 1944. Would he still be studying the faces of the condemned through the same black-and-white images, as he does today \u2013 or might he have stood on the other side, among the firing squad? \u201cThe thought gnaws at me,\u201d he reflects. \u201cOn the clock of history, what are 20 years?\u201d Over decades of research, Fleischer \u2013 emeritus professor of history at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (EKPA) \u2013 has never shied away from difficult subjects or from confronting the past. Through his scholarship and teaching, he helped shape a new generation of historians in Greece now studying World War II and the Occupation. We meet him at his home in Kapandriti, northeast of Athens, on the occasion of the Ministry of Culture\u2019s acquisition of rare photographic documents from the Kaisariani executions \u2013 images on which he has not spoken publicly until now.<\/p>\n

\u2018Necessary evil\u2019<\/h3>\n

He points to the \u201cdignity\u201d in the bearing of the condemned, their \u201cresolute stride\u201d as they walk toward certain death. He also underscores the significance of the photographs themselves. \u201cWe can now see an event that previously existed only in narratives and testimonies,\u201d he says. As a historian, he admits to mixed feelings about the online acquisition of such materials and the dealers who \u201cprofit\u201d from historical memory. Yet he also recognizes it as a \u201cnecessary evil.\u201d \u201cOtherwise, they might have been lost,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n

Before leading us into his study, he shows us the garden and the scars left by the wildfire of August 2024. \u201cThis pine tree would be my age today,\u201d says the 82-year-old, pointing to a charred trunk. That day, they were fortunate: The house survived, and his extensive archive \u2013 his \u201cpaper treasure,\u201d as his wife calls it \u2013 remained intact.<\/p>\n

Fleischer settles into a sofa with leather armrests and embroidered cushions. He wears a gray turtleneck beneath his cardigan, and his face is newly bare \u2013 he shaved off the beard he had worn for decades just days earlier. On the edge of his desk lies a draft speech for the presentation of a recently published book by Annita Panaretou, recounting the story of eight hostages executed by the Nazis at the Kaisariani shooting range in June 1942. One of them, Michalis Akylas \u2013 a naval officer later transferred to the Air Force \u2013 became, posthumously, a relative of Fleischer by marriage.<\/p>\n

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In the summer of 1941, a German-Greek dictionary was printed for Wehrmacht soldiers. \u2018It contained the most essential words for a German soldier \u2013 \u201cshoe,\u201d \u201cpolish\u201d \u2013 but alongside them were \u201cshoot\u201d and \u201chostage\u201d\u2019<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The glossary<\/h3>\n

Fleischer offers a telling example of the Wehrmacht\u2019s cynical approach to executions. In the summer of 1941, he notes, a German-Greek dictionary was printed for Wehrmacht soldiers. \u201cIt contained the most essential words for a German soldier \u2013 \u2018shoe,\u2019 \u2018polish\u2019 \u2013 but alongside them were \u2018shoot\u2019 and \u2018hostage,\u2019\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

On May 1, 1944, 200 Greeks were taken to Kaisariani \u2013 most of them communist political prisoners of the Metaxas regime, handed over to the Nazis three years earlier. They were executed in retaliation for the killing of German Lieutenant General Franz Krech in an ambush by ELAS partisans in Molaoi, Laconia. \u201cSuhnequote \u2013 \u2018atonement quota\u2019 \u2013 that\u2019s what they called it,\u201d Fleischer notes. \u201cAtonement is almost a religious term \u2013 they saw it as a kind of sacrilege to raise a hand against Germans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"the-execution-photos-and-the-ifs-of-history0\"\"the-execution-photos-and-the-ifs-of-history1\"
Looking at the recently emerged photos of the Kaisariani executions, Hagen Fleischer points to the \u2018dignity\u2019 in the bearing of the condemned, their \u2018resolute stride\u2019 as they walk toward certain death. [Nikos Kokkalias]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The \u2018apology\u2019<\/h3>\n

The historian pulls one of his own books from the shelf beside us \u2013 \u201cThe Wars of Memory: The Second World War in Public History.\u201d As he flips through it, his hand pauses on a page featuring a photograph from the June 1987 visit of then German president Richard von Weizsacker to the Kaisariani shooting range. It was the first visit by a German president to Greece in 31 years, and Fleischer understood its powerful symbolism. He had earlier suggested that Weizsacker lay a wreath in Kalavryta in the Peloponnese \u2013 where in December 1943 the Nazis massacred the town\u2019s entire male population over the age of 12 in a reprisal for the killing of German soldiers \u2013 but was told that a second trip outside Athens was not feasible, as the president would also visit the island of Samos. Fleischer then proposed Kaisariani instead.<\/p>\n

Although the German ambassador strongly supported the idea, it initially met resistance from the German Foreign Ministry and from conservative circles in Greece connected to the embassy. \u201c\u2018Only communists were killed there,\u2019 they argued \u2013 which is inaccurate,\u201d Fleischer recalls. There were also concerns about how the visit would be received locally and the possibility of protests. Fleischer intervened, speaking directly with the then mayor of Kaisariani, Panagiotis Makris, and the visit ultimately went ahead without incident.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one \u2013 especially no German \u2013 can stand here without being deeply moved by the message of this place,\u201d Weizsacker said in his speech. \u201cMany sacrificed their lives, like those buried here, among them 19 young people up to the age of 14. I bow to their memory.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Fleischer, it was a significant moment. Yet something, he says, was missing: The word \u201capology\u201d was never spoken. On the German side, it would remain taboo until 2014, when then president Joachim Gauck visited the martyred village of Ligiades in northwestern Greece. There, in September 1943, a unit of the elite 1st Mountain Division Edelweiss executed 83 residents of all ages \u2013 from a 2-month-old to a centenarian. Fleischer again played a role in that visit, helping ensure that this time the word \u201cforgiveness\u201d would be spoken at the highest level. He recalls that shortly before the speech, the interpreter consulted him to confirm the translation. \u201cI asked her whether the word \u2018forgiveness\u2019 or \u2018apology\u2019 appeared in the text. She said yes. \u2018Then it will be good,\u2019 I told her.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"the-execution-photos-and-the-ifs-of-history2\"\"the-execution-photos-and-the-ifs-of-history3\"
An image from the visit of German president Richard von Weizsacker (center, next to prime minister Andreas Papandreou) in June 1987 at the Kaisariani shooting range. Hagen Fleischer (behind \u2013 to the right of opposition leader Konstantinos Mitsotakis) had at the time proposed laying a wreath in memory of the victims of the Nazi executions.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u2018German-Greek,\u2019 a badge of honor<\/h3>\n

\u201cGerman-Greek\u201d \u2013 it\u2019s what the poet Kostas Varnalis called Hagen Fleischer.<\/p>\n

Born in 1944 in Austria, Fleischer met his future wife, Eleni Lambropoulou, in 1968 among anti-dictatorship circles in Berlin. It was after meeting her that he decided to shift his research focus from the German occupation of Denmark to that of Greece. \u201cMarry the girl, but don\u2019t ruin your future,\u201d he recalls his dissertation supervisor warning him. When he later explained his decision to fellow doctoral candidates in Berlin, their reaction surprised him: \u201cWere we there, too?\u201d they asked \u2013 a phrasing that still strikes him today.<\/p>\n

At the time, a kind of \u201cmemory-erasing\u201d approach prevailed in Germany. Historical accounts of World War II tended to treat Greece only briefly, often glossing over the atrocities committed by occupying forces. After completing his doctorate, Fleischer moved permanently to Greece in 1977. He went on to teach at EKPA and the University of Crete, and became a Greek citizen in 1985.<\/p>\n

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He had wondered how the locals would receive a German speaking about the Occupation. In the end, everything went smoothly, he says \u2013 except that the tsikoudia flowed a little too freely for his liking<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He recalls giving a lecture decades ago in Anogeia, a village razed by German forces in August 1944 as a brutal reprisal for the community\u2019s role in the resistance and the kidnapping of General Heinrich Kreipe. He had wondered how the locals would receive a German speaking about the occupation. In the end, everything went smoothly, he says \u2013 except that the tsikoudia flowed a little too freely for his liking.<\/p>\n

Asked about the reactions he has faced over the years, Fleischer recounts episodes from the 1980s, when some in Germany viewed him as a provocateur \u2013 someone stirring up painful memories and raising \u201cdivisive\u201d questions about Greek-German relations.<\/p>\n

The hostility resurfaced in 2012, after an Austrian publication ran a lengthy interview with him under the headline, \u201cFriends pay their debts,\u201d referring to the forced occupation loan. \u201cOf the 911 online comments, about 80% were negative \u2013 many of them insulting or vengeful. \u2018If we come back to Greece, we\u2019ll deal with you, traitor,\u2019 they wrote. The journalist told me the worst comments weren\u2019t even published,\u201d he recalls.<\/p>\n

In Greece, he says, the reactions have been milder and rarely focused on his origins. \u201cThe criticism I faced here was more about my presumed political stance,\u201d he notes, adding that Varnalis\u2019 \u201cbadge of honor\u201d still accompanies him today. As a \u201cGerman-Greek,\u201d he says, his aim has always been for his first homeland to stand in moral balance with his second.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n