Nazi Execution Photos Expose Greece's Suppressed Resistance History

Analysis of: ‘We can see that courage’: Greece recovers long-lost photos of Nazis’ May Day executions
The Guardian | February 21, 2026

TL;DR

Recovered photos of 200 Greek communists executed by Nazis in 1944 reignite debates over suppressed resistance history. The images expose how Cold War politics and postwar class struggle erased working-class anti-fascist memory for decades.

Analytical Focus:Historical Context Contradictions Class Analysis

The discovery of photographs documenting the Nazi execution of 200 Greek communists on May Day 1944 represents far more than an archival find—it exposes the deep class contradictions embedded in how nations construct historical memory. These images, taken by a Wehrmacht photographer and found on eBay selling Third Reich memorabilia, provide visual evidence of communist-led resistance that postwar Greek governments systematically suppressed for decades. The suppression was not merely ideological but served concrete class interests: the same forces that had collaborated with or accommodated Nazi occupation later aligned with Western imperialism during the Cold War, making the celebration of communist resistance politically dangerous. The article reveals how historical memory operates as a site of class struggle. For nearly three decades after Greece's liberation, the Communist Party (KKE) was banned, commemoration of resistance events prohibited, and access to sites like Kaisariani blocked. This wasn't historical amnesia but active class warfare: rightwing governments that came to power through civil war victory (1946-49)—often with British and American backing—had material interests in delegitimizing the resistance that communists had led. The photographs' emergence forces confrontation with this suppressed history, evidenced by far-right vandals destroying the memorial plaque within hours of their publication. The material trajectory of these images—from Wehrmacht propaganda unit to Belgian memorabilia dealer to potential Greek state acquisition—itself illustrates how commodification shapes historical knowledge under capitalism. That these photographs of working-class martyrdom circulated as collectibles for Third Reich enthusiasts before potentially becoming state patrimony underscores the contradictory ways capitalism processes even anti-fascist history. Greek historians recognize the images will 'open up space' for debate about civil war memory—acknowledging that the past remains unsettled because class conflicts from that era have never been fully resolved.

Class Dynamics

Actors: Greek communist resistance fighters and KKE party, Nazi occupation forces, Postwar rightwing Greek governments, Greek working class and their descendants, Academic historians, Far-right vandals, Belgian memorabilia collector, Greek state/culture ministry

Beneficiaries: Descendants of resistance fighters seeking recognition, Greek left and KKE gaining historical legitimation, Historians gaining archival access, The collector profiting from the sale

Harmed Parties: Greek communists systematically erased from official history for decades, Working-class families denied mourning and commemoration rights, Anti-fascist memory distorted by Cold War imperatives

The photographs expose a multi-generational power struggle over historical legitimacy. The original executions represented Nazi terror against organized working-class resistance. Postwar suppression represented the Greek bourgeoisie—backed by Western powers—continuing class warfare against communists through memory erasure. Today's debate reflects ongoing contestation, with far-right violence against the memorial demonstrating that these class antagonisms remain active.

Material Conditions

Economic Factors: Greek civil war's Cold War geopolitics and Western economic interests, Commodification of historical artifacts through memorabilia markets, State expenditure on cultural patrimony acquisition, Tourism and heritage industry around resistance sites

The executed communists were primarily workers and peasants who recognized that fighting fascism meant defending their class position against both foreign occupation and domestic capital that accommodated it. The postwar suppression served to protect property relations threatened by communist-led resistance movements throughout Europe. Today's commodification of these images through eBay illustrates how capitalism transforms even martyrdom into exchangeable commodities.

Resources at Stake: 262 photographs as historical documents, Control over national historical narrative, Political legitimacy derived from anti-fascist credentials, Memorial sites as contested spaces

Historical Context

Precedents: Italian Communist Party's similar postwar suppression despite leading anti-fascist resistance, Franco Spain's decades-long suppression of Republican memory, Cold War delegitimization of communist resistance across Western Europe, Greek civil war as first Cold War confrontation with British/US intervention

This case exemplifies a broader pattern where Western capitalist states, during and after WWII, prioritized anti-communism over anti-fascism. Despite communists leading the most effective resistance movements across occupied Europe, Cold War imperatives required their erasure from official memory. Greece's trajectory—from Nazi occupation to British-backed civil war to US-supported military dictatorship (1967-74)—demonstrates how imperialist core nations shaped peripheral states' class structures and historical narratives to serve capital's interests.

Contradictions

Primary: The fundamental contradiction between the historical reality of communist-led anti-fascist resistance and the postwar capitalist state's need to delegitimize that resistance to secure bourgeois rule.

Secondary: The contradiction between national pride in resistance and suppression of those who actually resisted, The commodification of anti-fascist martyrdom through memorabilia markets, The Greek state purchasing images taken by occupying forces as 'national patrimony', Far-right forces defending 'Greek heritage' while attacking monuments to Greeks killed fighting fascism

These contradictions cannot be fully resolved within the current system because acknowledging the full truth of communist resistance raises questions about class power that remain threatening. However, the photographs' emergence creates pressure toward partial resolution—official recognition of resistance while containing its revolutionary implications. The KKE's demand for public display represents a push for fuller reckoning, while far-right violence indicates reactionary resistance to any acknowledgment.

Global Interconnections

Greece's suppressed resistance memory connects to broader patterns of Cold War historical erasure across the capitalist periphery. From Indonesia's 1965 communist massacre to Operation Condor in Latin America, Western-aligned states systematically destroyed left movements and their historical memory. Greece's position—strategically crucial for controlling the Eastern Mediterranean, later a NATO member, subjected to IMF structural adjustment—illustrates how imperialist relations shape not only economic but ideological conditions in peripheral states. The photographs' journey through the memorabilia market also reveals how capitalism processes historical trauma. Third Reich collectibles represent a multi-million dollar global industry where the material artifacts of fascist violence become investment commodities. That images of working-class martyrs circulated in this market before state intervention underscores how thoroughly capitalist relations penetrate cultural production and historical preservation.

Conclusion

The recovery of these photographs offers an opportunity to examine how ruling classes construct historical memory to serve present interests. For contemporary class struggle, this case demonstrates that the fight over history is never merely academic—far-right violence against the memorial proves the bourgeoisie still perceives danger in celebrating communist resistance. Workers today can draw lessons from both the original resistance and its suppression: that anti-fascism historically succeeded when led by organized working-class forces, and that capitalist states will systematically erase this fact. The task of recovering and defending this memory remains part of the broader struggle against capital.

Suggested Reading

• Blackshirts and Reds by Michael Parenti (1997) Parenti's analysis of how Western powers accommodated and later rehabilitated fascism while suppressing communist movements directly illuminates Greece's postwar trajectory and the politics of anti-fascist memory.
• Prison Notebooks (Selections) by Antonio Gramsci (1935) Gramsci's concepts of hegemony and the role of intellectuals in constructing consent help explain how the Greek bourgeoisie maintained class rule partly through controlling historical memory and cultural institutions.
• The Making of the English Working Class by E.P. Thompson (1963) Thompson's recovery of working-class history 'from the enormous condescension of posterity' parallels the Greek case, demonstrating how class struggle includes the fight to preserve popular memory against ruling-class erasure.