A routine construction project in Thessaloniki uncovered a hidden chapter of Greece’s post-war trauma, according to an article by Costas Cantouris in AP.
The discovery has unearthed painful memories of Greece’s Civil War. Construction workers laying benches in a city park uncovered a mass grave — 33 skeletons in unmarked pits near the Yedi Kule fortress, once a prison where leftists were tortured and executed between 1946–1949.
“We found many bullets in the heads, the skulls,” said supervising engineer Haris Charismiadis. Items found include a ring, a woman’s shoe, and a handbag — remnants of lives cut short.
The site, cleared for development because the bones are under 100 years old, has become the country’s first exhumed Civil War mass grave. Authorities in Neapolis-Sykies insisted on continuing the excavation, calling the find “of great historical and national importance.”
Families are now visiting, hoping for identification through DNA. “So they can retrieve the remains of their grandfather, great-grandfather or uncle,” said long-serving mayor Simos Daniilidis.
One of them is Agapios Sachinis, 78, whose uncle was executed at 19 for refusing to renounce his beliefs. “It’s about carrying inside you not just courage, but values and dignity you won’t compromise – not even to save your own life,” he said. “I want Agapios close to me, at least while I’m alive.”
Historian Spyros Kouzinopoulos, who researched the executions, described the victims as the “flowers of their generation.” Two 17-year-old schoolgirls were among them.
The city plans further excavation. “We must send a message,” said Daniilidis. “Never again.”
Source: AP, ekathimerini.com
