Napoleon Soukatzidis (; 1909 – May 1, 1944) was a

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

communist Communism () is a sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology within the socialist movement, whose goal is the creation of a communist society, a socioeconomic order centered on common ownership of the means of production, di ...

trade unionist A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

and one of the 200 prisoners executed at the firing range of the

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

suburb of

Kaisariani Kaisariani () is a suburban town and a municipality in the eastern part of the Athens#Athens Urban Area, Athens agglomeration in Greece. Geography Kaisariani is located about southeast of Athens city centre, and of the Acropolis of Athens. T ...

by the

Nazi Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

occupation forces Military occupation, also called belligerent occupation or simply occupation, is temporary hostile control exerted by a ruling power's military apparatus over a sovereign territory that is outside of the legal boundaries of that ruling powe ...

on May 1, 1944.Gkotzaridis, Evi
''A Pacifist's Life and Death: Grigorios Lambrakis and Greece in the Long Shadow of Civil War''
Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2016.

Biography

Napoleon Soukatzidis was born in

Bursa Bursa () is a city in northwestern Turkey and the administrative center of Bursa Province. The fourth-most populous city in Turkey and second-most populous in the Marmara Region, Bursa is one of the industrial centers of the country. Most of ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

(modern

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

) in 1909 to an

ethnic Greek Greeks or Hellenes (; , ) are an ethnic group and nation native to Greece, Cyprus, southern Albania, Anatolia, parts of Italy and Egypt, and to a lesser extent, other countries surrounding the Eastern Mediterranean and Black Sea. They also fo ...

family. After the Greek defeat in the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, and the forced population exchange that followed, he and his family settled in

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

, in the area of

Arkalochori Arkalochori () is a town and a former municipality in the Heraklion regional unit, Crete, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Minoa Pediada, of which it is a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area ...

, near

Heraklion Heraklion or Herakleion ( ; , , ), sometimes Iraklion, is the largest city and the administrative capital city, capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion (regional unit), Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in G ...

. He studied business and became an accountant. Soukatzidis was multilingual and spoke Russian, English, German, French as well as Turkish. He was a member of the

Greek Communist Party The Communist Party of Greece (, ΚΚΕ; ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a Marxist–Leninist political party in Greece. It was founded in 1918 as the Socialist Workers' Party of Greece (SEKE) and adopted its current name in Novem ...

(KKE), and president of the Heraklion shop clerks trade union. Due to his union activism, in 1936 he was arrested by the dictatorial regime of

Ioannis Metaxas Ioannis Metaxas (; 12 April 187129 January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who was dictator of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for the first four months of his tenure, and thereafter as th ...

and exiled to the island of

Agios Efstratios Agios Efstratios or Saint Eustratius (), colloquially Ai Stratis (), anciently Halonnesus or Halonnesos (), is a small Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea about southwest of Lemnos and northwest of Lesbos. The municipality has an area of 43. ...

(Ai Stratis).

Exile and imprisonment

In April 1937, Soukatzidis was transferred from Agios Efstratios to the prison of

Acronauplia The Acronauplia (; , "Inner Castle") is the oldest part of the city of Nafplion in Greece. Until the thirteenth century, it was a town on its own. The arrival of the Venetians and the Franks transformed it into part of the town fortifications. ...

. Following the surrender of Greece to the Axis in April 1941, he and hundreds other political prisoners were handed over to the German forces. He was later moved to the prisons of

Trikala Trikala () is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala (regional unit), Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios (Thessaly), Pineios. According to the Greek Natio ...

and

Larissa Larissa (; , , ) is the capital and largest city of the Thessaly region in Greece. It is the fifth-most populous city in Greece with a population of 148,562 in the city proper, according to the 2021 census. It is also the capital of the Larissa ...

and eventually ended up at the Haidari transit camp in Athens. There, due to his knowledge of German, he was made an interpreter.

Execution

On 27 April 1944, the German lieutenant general

Franz Krech Major General (''Generalmajor'') Franz Krech (23 June 1889 – 27 April 1944) was the German commander of the 41st Fortress Division of the Wehrmacht during the World War II Axis occupation of Greece. He was ambushed and killed by a platoon of the ...

, commander of the 41st Fortress Division, was killed in an ambush by

partisans Partisan(s) or The Partisan(s) may refer to: Military * Partisan (military), paramilitary forces engaged behind the front line ** Francs-tireurs et partisans, communist-led French anti-fascist resistance against Nazi Germany during WWII ** Itali ...

of the pro-communist

ELAS The Greek People's Liberation Army (, ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós''; ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberation Front (EAM) during the period of the Greek resistance until February 1945, when, followi ...

near

Molaoi Molaoi () is a town and a former municipality in Laconia, Peloponnese, Greece. Since the 2011 local government reform it is part of the municipality Monemvasia, of which it is the seat and a municipal unit. The municipal unit has an area of 193.167 ...

. In reprisal, on 30 April the German authorities ordered the execution of two hundreds of political prisoners kept at Haidari. The dead row list was drafted at the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

headquarters in Merlin Street. Soukatzidis was calling out the names of those to be shot when he read his own name from the list. The German camp commandant lieutenant Karl Fischer told him to remain at his position. Soukatzidis then asked Fischer whether his place would remain vacant. Fischer replied that his orders were to have two hundreds shot, so Soukatzidis left his post and joined those condemned to die. He and his comrades were driven on lorries to the shooting range of Kaisariani and executed in batches of 20 by firing squad on the dawn of 1 May 1944.Το τρίτο σημείωμα
Ε. Βενάρδου, Huffington Post Greece, 04/10/2017.

Legacy

A statue of Soukatzidis stands in Archalochori and a street in the suburb of Haidari bears his name. The 2017 film ''

The Last Note ''The Last Note'' (, translit. To Teleftaio Simeioma) is a 2017 Greek drama film directed by Pantelis Voulgaris. It is based on the execution of 200 Greek political prisoners in reprisal for the killing of a German general by Greek partisan ...

'' by

Pantelis Voulgaris Pantelis Voulgaris (; born 23 October 1940) is a Greek film director and screenwriter. His first feature film ''To proxenio tis Annas'' in 1972 won the first prize in Thessaloniki International Film Festival. His 1989 film ''The Striker with Num ...

portrays Soukatzidis' sacrifice. He is played by the Greek actor Andreas Konstantinou.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soukatzidis, Napoleon 1909 births 1944 deaths Greek communists People from Bursa Communists executed by Nazi Germany Greek people executed by Nazi Germany 20th-century Greek people Prisoners and detainees of Greece People from Heraklion (regional unit) Politicians from Heraklion People executed by Nazi Germany by firing squad Emigrants from the Ottoman Empire to Greece