The Antiquities of Greece and WWII

Lecture by Dr Stavros Paspalas, Director of the Australian Archeological Institute at Athens

How did the Greek authorities prepare to protect their antiquities with war on the horizon? How did Greece’s antiquities fare during the Occupation? What were the attitudes of the occupying forces (German, Italian and Bulgarian) to Greece's cultural heritage? How did the perceived role of Greece as one of the major sources of Western civilisation impact on the occupiers? What symbolic role were the antiquities called upon to serve by the Greeks during these dark years? These are some of the questions addressed in this lecture, which presents insights into a little visited aspect of Greece's recent past.