An absolutely captivating exhibition is currently on display until 30th September 2019 at the newly refurbished Fethiye mosque in the Roman Agora in Athens. ‘The Occuper’s gaze’ exhibition displays photographs of Athens taken by Nazi soldiers during the German occupation of Greece during the Second World War. Over 3000 photos of Greece during this period were donated to Byron Metsos by the daughter of a German soldier who wanted to remain anonymous.
In October 1940 Metaxas had famously said ‘oxi’ to the Italian fascists who had wanted to occupy strategic positions in Greece, bringing the country to war with the Axis powers. The Italians led a failed campaign to control Greece and it wasn’t until March 1941 that Germany sent its forces in to complete the invasion.
It was so intriguing to see the streets and monuments I know so well combined with scenes of Nazi SS officers and swastika flags. In fact it was the candid scenes of friends in their Nazi uniforms visiting the famous sites of antiquity that were most incredible to see, just like tourists take photos today by the exact same columns and rocks. Many of the photos had been carefully collected into photo albums to remember positive memories from their army days, even with illustrations like the page in the image above. For many of the soldiers who were sent to Greece it must have seemed almost like a holiday for their friends who were sent to the much harsher Eastern and North African fronts were unlikely to return.
Photography was used for maximum effect by the Nazi war machine, led by head of propaganda Joseph Goebbels. He famously stated that ‘photography today is accomplishing a lofty mission in which every German should collaborate by buying a camera’. Leni Reifenstahl’s famous Olympia film and coverage of the Nuremberg rallies and the Berlin 1936 Olympics emphasised the Nazi Aryan ideal harking back to ancient times. The exhibition also features some newsreel footage showing the Nazi arrival in Athens.
You can see in these photos that the propaganda ministry was trying hard to get the shots of German military might juxtaposed against the relics of the ancient world they admired – anti aircraft guns were hauled up to the acropolis, panzer tanks paraded past Syntagma square and ‘merkblatter’ travel guides were given to soldiers with a digest of archaeological history and instructions on proper behaviour towards monuments. The labels on the photos also detail for the viewer which photos were censored by the ministry.
There is a hint at the end of the exhibition of the superiority the Germans felt over their Greek subjects and the racist ideologies that permeated the National Socialist movement. Captions such as ‘shabby houses’ ‘tram full of fare dodgers’ ‘total mess but nothing you can do’ and making fun of the poverty like ‘Greek limosuines’ for horse/donkey carts and ‘do you want to buy this?’ from street sellers show that the occupiers certainly felt like they deserved to control the city.
This really is a must see exhibition for those who love to see photographs of cities from different time periods. It also reminds us how the photographs we take are mementoes of history…but can be as staged as some of these to turn our gaze away from atrocities happening elsewhere.
Take a look through the online catalogue of photos here
http://ayla.culture.gr/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/ΜΕ-ΤΟ-ΒΛΕΜΜΑ-ΤΟΥ-ΚΑΤΑΚΤΗΤΗ-ΚΑΤΑΛΟΓΟΣ.pdf
Laura Aitken-Burt 