Previously unknown photographs reportedly depicting the execution of 200 Greek resistance fighters at the Kaisariani shooting range on 1 May 1944 have surfaced publicly for the first time, 82 years after the atrocity. If authenticated, the images would constitute one of the most significant visual records of a massacre that stands among the gravest crimes committed by Nazi occupation forces in Greece.
The material appeared for auction on eBay via a Belgian seller, with no confirmed identification of the photographer. Information circulated on social media, and the description accompanying the sale suggests that the photographs were discovered in an album attributed to a German officer stationed in Malakasa during the occupation.
Intense bidding has driven the price of each image from an initial €36.50 to around €2,100, due to its potential historical value and the controversy surrounding its commercial sale. The auction surfaced in Greek media via a Facebook post by the page "Greece at WWII Archives" and has since sparked debate over the photographs' authenticity and the ethics of trading visual material linked to war crimes.
The mass execution at Kaisariani was carried out on International Workers' Day as retaliation for the killing of a German general and accompanying officers in Molai, Laconia, on 27 April 1944. Most of the victims were political prisoners, many transferred from the Haidari concentration camp. The massacre is a powerful symbol of resistance and martyrdom in modern Greek memory.
No official archive or state body has yet verified the images. However, historians and researchers specialising in the period have expressed strong interest in examining them. Some collectors tentatively attribute the photographs to German lieutenant Hermann-Otto Hoyer, who served in the 1012 Festungs-Bataillon based in Malakasa and later at Isthmia. Hoyer was a one-armed veteran of the First World War and a well-known painter favoured by Adolf Hitler, who reportedly volunteered for the SS. These claims remain unconfirmed and require official archival investigation.
Yet, members of the public have begun identifying individuals depicted in the photographs. One of the first reportedly recognised is Vassilis N. Papadimas, an engineer from Pylos arrested in 1941, identified by relatives as the tall man in a white shirt among those led to execution.
The employees' association of the Greek Ministry of Culture has called for the state to purchase and preserve the photographs in national archives to prevent their disappearance into private collections. Former prime minister Alexis Tsipras has also written to the Speaker of Parliament, urging the Hellenic Parliament to acquire them as potential historical artefacts.
