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

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece 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 ...

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

trade unionist A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

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

Athens Athens ( ; el, Αθήνα, Athína ; grc, Ἀθῆναι, Athênai (pl.) ) is both the capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. With a population close to four million, it is also the seventh List ...

suburb of

Kaisariani Kaisariani ( el, Καισαριανή) is a suburb and a municipality in the eastern part of the Athens agglomeration in Greece. Geography Kaisariani is located about southeast of Athens city centre, and of the Acropolis of Athens. The munic ...

by the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hit ...

occupation forces Japan was occupied and administered by the victorious Allies of World War II from the 1945 surrender of the Empire of Japan at the end of the war until the Treaty of San Francisco took effect in 1952. The occupation, led by the United States wi ...

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 ( grc-gre, Προῦσα, Proûsa, Latin: Prusa, ota, بورسه, Arabic:بورصة) 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 t ...

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire, * ; is an archaic version. The definite article forms and were synonymous * and el, Оθωμανική Αυτοκρατορία, Othōmanikē Avtokratoria, label=none * info page on book at Martin Luther University) ...

in 1909 to an

ethnic Greek The Greeks or Hellenes (; el, Έλληνες, ''Éllines'' ) are an ethnic group and nation indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea regions, namely Greece, Cyprus, Albania, Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and, to a lesser extent, othe ...

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 ( el, Κρήτη, translit=, Modern: , Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the 88th largest island in the world and the fifth largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, after Sicily, Sardinia, Cypru ...

, in the area of

Arkalochori Arkalochori ( el, Αρκαλοχώρι) 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 m ...

, near

Heraklion Heraklion or Iraklion ( ; el, Ηράκλειο, , ) is the largest city and the administrative capital of the island of Crete and capital of Heraklion regional unit. It is the fourth largest city in Greece with a population of 211,370 (Urban ...

. 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 ( el, Κομμουνιστικό Κόμμα Ελλάδας, ''Kommounistikó Kómma Elládas'', KKE) is a political party in Greece. Founded in 1918 as the Socialist Labour Party of Greece and adopted its curre ...

(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 (; el, Ιωάννης Μεταξάς; 12th April 187129th January 1941) was a Greek military officer and politician who served as the Prime Minister of Greece from 1936 until his death in 1941. He governed constitutionally for t ...

and exiled to the island of

Agios Efstratios Agios Efstratios or Saint Eustratius ( el, Άγιος Ευστράτιος), colloquially Ai Stratis ( el, Άη Στράτης), anciently Halonnesus or Halonnesos ( grc, Ἁλόννησος), is a small Greek island in the northern Aegean Sea abo ...

(Ai Stratis).

Exile and imprisonment

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

Acronauplia The Acronauplia ( ell, Ακροναυπλία, translit=Akronafplia, tr, Iç Kale, "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 th ...

. 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 ( el, Τρίκαλα; rup, Trikolj) is a city in northwestern Thessaly, Greece, and the capital of the Trikala regional unit. The city straddles the Lithaios river, which is a tributary of Pineios. According to the Greek National Stati ...

and

Larissa Larissa (; el, Λάρισα, , ) 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 144,651 according to the 2011 census. It is also capital of the Larissa regiona ...

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 (died 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 Greek Peopl ...

, commander of the 41st Fortress Division, was killed in an ambush by partisans of the pro-communist

ELAS The Greek People's Liberation Army ( el, Ελληνικός Λαϊκός Απελευθερωτικός Στρατός (ΕΛΑΣ), ''Ellinikós Laïkós Apeleftherotikós Stratós'' (ELAS) was the military arm of the left-wing National Liberat ...

near

Molaoi Molaoi ( el, Μολάοι) 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 a ...

. 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 (), 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 Prussia into one or ...

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'' ( el, Το Τελευταίο Σημείωμα, 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 k ...

'' by

Pantelis Voulgaris Pantelis Voulgaris ( el, Παντελής Βούλγαρης; 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 Festiv ...

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

Andreas Konstantinou Andreas Konstantinou ( gr, Ανδρέας Κωνσταντίνου) is a Greek actor. He appeared in more than twelve films since 1995. Selected filmography Awards References External links * Living people Greek male film actors ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soukatzidis, Napoleon 1909 births 1944 deaths Greek communists People from Bursa Greek people executed by Nazi Germany 20th-century Greek people Greek prisoners and detainees 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 Executed communists