ΧΑΪΔΑΡΙ ΧΑΪΔΑΡΙ - ΣΥΝΑΝΤΗΣΗ ΜΕ ΤΗΝ ΙΣΤΟΡΙΑ | Page 259

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Occupation – National Resistance
– The Chaidari camp
I
n the end of the 19th century, Chaidari was a
sparsely inhabited rural area. The foundation of the
Dromokaiteion Psychiatry prompted the formation
of a small settlement in 1887. Fifty-four refugee families
from Asia Minor founded the Nea Phokaia settlement
in 1924, in between Stratarchou Karaiskaki, N. Plastera,
Dodekanisou and I. Venezi Streets. The refugees came
from a variety of localities in Asia Minor, and mainly
from Phokaia. In 1926 they founded the church of the
Dormition and a Primary School, while the Agricultural
Refugee Group of New Phokaians promoted the solution
of local community problems. Pontic Greeks arrived too
and later formed a local Society Club.
The population increase prompted the establishment
of the autonomous Chaidari Community, which used to
belong to Aigaleo until the 2 April 1935.
P. Lychnaropoulos was the first Community President.
Chaidari continued to develop until World War II. The
German Occupation of Athens is directly related to
Chaidari, since Chaidari hosted the largest concentration
camp in Greece, mainly for political opposers and
resistance fighters. The rumors on the the torturing and
crimes comprised one of the main means of terrorizing
the population and preventing resistance. Themos
Kornaros, one of the prisoners stresses the importance of
the rumors that made Chaidari a synonym to Death and
had a greater impact to outsiders than the insiders.
The camp occupied 500000 sq. m north of Kavalas
Avenue to the foot of the Poikilo (Kaskadan) mountain.
The area today is shared by the municipalities of Peristeri,
Chaidari and Petroupoli and hosts military training centres
for heavy arms and communications. It is a forrest area.
Wehrmacht special forces parade in front
of the Unknown Soldier monument on the 3rd of May 1941.
The text following unfolds the blood-stained pages of
the Chaidari camp, based on the narratives of prisoners
that survived its inferno.
The German occupation of Chaidari
Greece entered World War II on the 28th of October
1940, when the Italian Ambassador handed Ioannis
Metaxas, the President of the Greek cabinet, an ultimatum
demanding to allow the Italian forces to pass through
Greece. The Greek denial placed Greece against the
Axis. The Chaidari camp had just been constructed.
A small British force was stationed in it, early in 1941.
Torture. Xylography by Vaso Katraki (detail).