Construction work unearths skeletons of dozens of people executed in Greece during the 1940s
Construction work near one of Greece's most notorious prisons in Thessaloniki has unearthed the remains of dozens of people executed during the Greek Civil War era, relatives and officials said Wednesday. The grisly find included the discovery of footwear, including the remnants of a woman's shoe.
So far, 33 skeletons have been found near Eptapyrgio prison northeast of the city, a former Byzantine-era fortress later known as Yedi Kule under Ottoman rule, city officials said in a statement.
The Greek civil war lasted from 1946 to 1949 but executions of political prisoners held for alleged affiliation to the Greek communist party (KKE) continued for years thereafter.
It is estimated that over 150,000 people lost their lives during the conflict, while around 800,000 people were displaced. CBS News journalist George Polk, who had depicted the right-wing Greek government as corrupt, was among those killed during the war.
"We are here today with very mixed feelings. We are happy because, even after 80 years of delay, we found the skeletons of the people who lost their lives for their ideas and for the country," said the local mayor of Sykies municipality, Simos Daniilidis.
But he added that they were "saddened, embittered, and angry" because of the killings, which he termed "inhumane, horrific, inconceivable things for today's Greek civilization."
One of the victims is believed to be a woman "after traces of a woman's shoe were found," officials said. Several shoes worn by young adults were also unearthed, said the officials, who posted images of the footwear.
The first remains were discovered in December during work on a city park. At the time, local officials ruled that the skeletons were of no archaeological interest, but Daniilidis, "believing that there is enormous historical and political interest," requested that archaeologists excavate the wider area of the park.
"In the dark years of the civil war, the area was used for the execution of political prisoners, or the relocation of their bodies, as it was very near the prison and was uninhabited at the time," Sykies municipality said in a statement.
"We don't know where he is buried"
Many of the victims are believed to have been killed for links with the KKE. A party delegation was present Wednesday to lay flowers at the site.
With assistance from archaeologists, the excavation has uncovered clothes, jewelry and bullets.
"Thirty-three skeletons were discovered in four clusters. The skeletons are not in very good condition due to the soil and conditions. They are very fragile," said archaeologist Stavroula Tsevrini.
The findings have been handed over to the police and efforts have already begun to identify the skeletons through DNA tests.
The municipality has put out a call for relatives and descendants of civil war victims to step forward to speed up the identification process.
The KKE party is compiling a list of executed political prisoners for publication.
"During the civil war in this region, approximately 400 people held in Yedi Kule as political prisoners were executed," said Spyros Kouzinopoulos, a journalist who has written a book on the issue, drawing on police archives.
"The executed were buried in mass graves without their relatives knowing where each one was buried. Here the area is full of remains," he told AFP.
Miltiadis Parathyras said his uncle Rigas was executed at the location in March 1951.
"He was a captain in the (communist) Democratic Army, arrested in 1949 and held in prison for about two years. He was executed at the age of 24 along with five others in March 1951," he said.
"We don't know where he is buried. Where did they throw him?"
In a statement, the city said efforts to find other mass graves would continue "so that all the skeletons of the people who lost their lives in this way during the dark years of the Civil War and were not given the honors traditionally attributed to the dead are found."
