The monument of August 13, 1944

The monument for the victims of the Kalamaria roundup (August 13, 1944) was created by the sculptor Ioannis Fanakidis and placed in the park of the same name on Kerasountos Street in 1983. The work is inspired by the events of August 13, 1944, when the Germans, accompanied by the Greek collaborators of Dagoulas’ infamous battalion, surrounded the centre of Kalamaria and the nearby settlements and proceeded to execute thirteen people on the pretext that they were members of resistance organisations. The battalion of Antonios Dagoulas, known as the “National Hellenic Security of the City of Thessaloniki”, was created in 1944. It had almost a hundred members, who wore armbands with skulls and were unofficially entrusted with police duties. However, the armband proved that their real mission was the destruction of their opponents, as was the case in the Kalamaria roundup.

The monument serves as a reminder of the unnecessary violence of the war. The heavy and straightforward volume of the sculpture (bronze, marble, and cement) leads the viewers’ gaze to the names of the thirteen innocent who were executed on August 13, 1944. The embossed human figure on the sculpture ends in the shape of a cross.