From the Archives: Όχι Day in Athens, October 1951

Background 

October 28, 2026, occurred in the middle of last week. Here in USA, it was just another Wednesday (other than our standard political turmoil and high-level fraud in Washington). 

But in Greece, October 28 is a profoundly important national holiday, Όχι Day. Oxi means No in Greek. It commemorates the beginning of World War II for Greece when General Metaxas told Mussolini's envoy, "Όχι." It marked Greece;'s entry into World War II and the remarkable first defeat of the Axis powers.

From Wikipedia:

Shortly after 03:00 on 28 October 1940, the Italian ambassador in Athens, Emanuele Grazzi, delivered an ultimatum from the Italian dictator, Benito Mussolini, to Greece's leader, Ioannis Metaxas, at his residence in Kifissia. The ultimatum demanded that Greece allow Axis forces to cross the Greek-Albanian border and occupy certain "strategic positions" within Greek territory, or else face the prospect of war. Metaxas refused, replying in French, then the language of diplomacy: "Alors, c'est la guerre" ("Then, it is war").

Italian forces stationed in Albania, then under Italian rule, attacked the Greek frontier in Epirus at 05:30, half an hour before the ultimatum expired. The Greek army halted the invasion by mid-November 1940 and then counter-attacked into southern Albania.

  

30 October 1940 newspaper with editorial about Oxi (from Wikipedia, in the common domain)

My stepdad was a newly-graduated surgeon and was drafted into the Greek Army. The army marched to the Albanian frontier. The Greek forces pushed back and devastated the Italian troops, pushing them  into the mountains of Albania.  

As the winter of 1940-1941 progressed (one of the most severe of the century), the Italian troops were woefully unprepared. They had not been equipped with winter clothing or cold weather equipment, and they suffered horribly. My stepdad told me that he frequently amputated toes and fingers of Italian men who had suffered frostbite and developed gangrene. Note this is a Greek surgeon saving Italian soldiers in a Greek field hospital.  

Adolf Hitler reluctantly decided that he needed to rescue his Italian ally, Benito Mussolino, whose army was bogged down in the mountains of Albania. Another consideration was if Greece remained in Allied hands, British bombers might be able to bomb the oil fields in Romania, whose oil was crucial for Germany's economy and Hitler's planned invasion of the Soviet Union. 

The German army invaded Greece on April 6, 1941. The German forces rapidly overran Greek, British, Australian, and New Zealand defenders and ended the battle decisively by April 30. 

My stepdad said after the surrender, the Greek army was disbanded. He and other officers used mules and long marches to return to Athens. (Note, it is a long trek across the Pindus mountains from Albania to Athens).   

The incredible battles in the mountains of Albania may have ultimately led to the failure of the German invasion of the Soviet Union. After conquering Greece, the German troops and equipment had to return to Germany for reequipping and reorganization. They invaded the Soviet Union on June 22. Had they started a month or six weeks earlier, they might have been able to reach Moscow before the onset of the terrible Winter of 1941-1942. Adolf Hitler himself blamed the failure of his invasion of the Soviet Union on Mussolini's inability to conquer Greece. Historians will debate this indefinitely. But for the sake of this blog, let's conclude that the Greeks saved the western world.   

Here are some of my dad's Kodachrome slides from Όχι Day in 1951. 

Syntagma

Hellenic Parliament building (formerly the Royal Palace)

A cowgirl and a Scotswoman?

Corner of Panepistimiou and Kriezotou Streets

 

This was the view from a balcony on the Hotel Grande Bretagne. The hotel is one of the most fashionable accommodations in the heart of the city. 

Odos Panepistemiou

 

Schliemann mansion, now the Numismatic Museum of Athens

Fortunately, Heinrich Schliemann's (the controversial excavator of Troy) magnificent neoclassical building has been preserved and houses the Numismatic Museum of Athens. 

Papudov Mansion (no longer extent)

This building may be the former Papudov Mansion, at the corner of Vasilissis Sofias Avenue and Panepistimiou. It was built in the late 1890s for a Russian banker, Aristeidis Papudov. In 1970, a developer demolished the grand mansion and replaced it with a revolting glass box hotel, which failed soon after. 

The frantic building boom of the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s destroyed much of Athens' neoclassical and Art Nouveau architecture. Today, much of the city is a concrete jungle of uninteresting and tired square buildings of no architectural merit, far too little green space, and congested streets.

 

 

An American in Paris Athens

My dad took these slides with Kodachrome film with his Leica IIIC rangefinder camera and a 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens. This Kodachrome had a film speed of Weston 8 or ASA 10. He measured light with a GE PR-1 light meter. I scanned the slides with a Nikon Coolscan 5000ED film scanner running under Nikon Scan 4.03 software. 

Decades from now, will we have our own Oxi Day here in USA to celebrate how we escaped from political disintegration, when the people said, "Oxi!"?

Recovering and Rebuilding: Athens in 1951-1953

Background

1951 - Greece was finally at peace and rebuilding after a terrible decade of invasion, occupation, and civil war.  The Civil War had ended in 1949, during which tens of thousands died from starvation and Communist death squads. And the brutal civil war had followed invasion and occupation by German and Italian troops during World War II.  By 1950, a constitutional monarchy was in place, with backing from the United States and NATO. Athens was the capital, the economic and political center of a recovering country. Rebuilding the economy and putting people to work was a critical element of the Truman Doctrine. As written in Wikipedia, "The Truman Doctrine was an international relations policy set forth by the U.S. President Harry Truman in a speech on March 12, 1947, which stated that the U.S. would support Greece and Turkey with economic and military aid to prevent them from falling into the Soviet sphere."

In many ways, the Cold War began in Greece. The United States played a heavy-handed role in running Greek affairs from the late-1940s through the 1960s. As a benefit, Greece experienced its first two decades of peace in the 20th century, as well as an unprecedented economic boom. But there were many critics. For anti-U.S. views of the post-war era in Greece, I recommend Papandreau (1970) and Roubatis (1987).

This short introduction to the political situation in the 1950s sets the stage for my family's residence in Athens. Many American companies set up offices to design and construct civil works and infrastructure development projects, mostly funded by U.S. foreign aide. My father was a hydraulic engineer and accepted a job to help conduct watershed and hydraulic studies as part of major water supply projects. He moved to Athens in February of 1951. Planners expected Athens to grow in the post-war era, although I doubt they anticipated that it would eventually be a metropolis of 3.09 million in 2011 (General Secretariat of National Statistical Service of Greece).

Athens in 1951

In the early 1950s, Athens was still a very "European" capital, with tree-shaded streets, parks, and elegant early-20th century houses. The following photographs document some of my father's wanderings in this historic city.

 

This is the view from Mt. Hymmetus, a mountain range east of the city. Athens was a compact urban area with fields and olive groves on the outskirts.  Today this scene would reveal total urban sprawl, concrete, and smog. And notice the clear blue sky. My father noted in his diary that he had never been to a major city with such clean air.

Athens in 1953, Kodachrome film

The contemporary Acropolis viewpoint (Kodak digital file)

This is the view northeast from the Acropolis. In 1953, Athens was a city of 2- and 3-floor stone buildings with sloped tile roofs and just a few taller modern buildings. Fortunately, Athens was not bombed in World War II (although the Port of Piraeus was). Many elegant mansions and townhouses from the late-1800s were still standing. But most were torn down in the pell-mell burst of post-war uncontrolled urban growth. Only in recent years have Athenians realized how much of their architectural heritage they destroyed. Now much of Athens is a boring concrete mess with massive traffic jams.

Temple of Zeus with Mt. Hymmetus in the distance

Temple of Zeus

The Temple of Zeus and Hadrian's Gate have always been popular tourist sites.

In the early 1950s, you could walk right into the Parthenon and clamber among the rocks. Now tourists are restricted to wood boardwalks.

Syndagma Square and the Grande Bretagne Hotel

Changing of the guard, Syndagma Square.

 

Syndagma Square, in front of the Parliament Building, was the tourist and political center of Athens. Parades were held here and families brought their children on Sundays to walk around. The hotel in the background is the Hotel Grand Bretagne (Ξενοδοχείο Μεγάλη Βρεταννία), in business since 1874. On Christmas Day, 1944, while Winston Churchill was a guest (the German Army had been driven out only three months previously), British army engineers discovered a huge dynamite bomb in the sewers below the hotel (Churchill, 1953). British sappers successfully defused the bomb, sparing the hotel and its illustrious guest.

Note the yellow tram. I remember when the tracks were taken out in the late-1950s, one of those misguided "modernization" steps to substitute smelly diesel buses instead. I wonder if General Motors had a hand in this as in U.S. cities?

The older parks and city squares were beautifully planted with palms and gardens. Many now are paved.

Omonia Square, Athens, 1953

Omonia Square was the heart of the commercial city, close to markets and factories. The Metro to Piraeus and Kiffisias ran underneath. Notice the blue sky....

Paltea Kotzia, in front of the National Bank of Greece Building

From Omonia, you could walk south on Athinas Street towards the Monastiraki District and the Acropolis.

Central Market, Athens

Central Market, Athens

Walk south from Omonia, and you soon reached the famous Central Market. It has not changed all that much to this day. We have explored the Central Market before (click the link).

Athens Flea Market, 1953

Athens Flea Market, 1953

Further south, one would have entered Monasteraki Square, in the Plaka district. On a narrow street to the right was the flea market. It is still there, although rather modernized. We have explored the flea market before:

1951 (black and white film)
2013

Somewhere in the Plaka, Athens (Kodak digital file)

 

The Plaka area also has not changed too much, but it has been gentrified over the decades. For a more recent view, click the 2013 link.

References

Churchill, W.S., 1953. The Second World War, Volume VI, Triumph and Tragedy.  Houghton Mifflin Company, New York, NY., 717 p.

Papandreou, Andreas, 1970. Democracy at Gunpoint: The Greek Front.  Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 365 p.

(Note, this is the same Andreas Papandreou who was Prime Minister of Greece in the 1980s. He had a troubled relationship with the United States when it suited his political needs, even though he served in the U.S. Navy, had U.S. citizenship, married an American wife, and taught economics at Berkeley.)

Roubatis, Yiannis, 1987. Tangled Webs, the U.S. in Greece, 1947-1967. Pella Publishing Company, New York, NY, 228 p.

Camera notes

My dad took the 1953 photographs with a Leica IIIC rangefinder camera with 5cm ƒ/2 Summitar lens (I still use this lens regularly). The Kodachrome film was processed in the United States or France with difficulty because of the undependable postal service in the early 1950s. I scanned the Kodachrome slides on a Plustek 7600i film scanner using Silverfast Ai software.