Konstantinos Kukidis ( Greek Κωνσταντίνος Κουκίδης ; 1924 (?) - April 27, 1941 ) - a Greek military man who, according to legend, refused to remove the Greek flag on April 27, 1941, over the Acropolis of Athens, despite the demands of the Wehrmacht soldiers, and committed suicide.
| Konstantinos Kukidis | |
|---|---|
| Greek Κωνσταντίνος Κουκίδης | |
 Monument to Kukidis | |
| Date of Birth | 1924 |
| Date of death | April 27, 1941 |
| Place of death | Athens , Kingdom of Greece |
| Affiliation |  Greece |
| Type of army | Evzones |
| Rank | private |
| Battles / Wars | World War II ( Greek operation ) |
Content
Feat
On July 9, 1941, the British newspaper Daily Mail published an article “A Greek Carries his Flag To The Death” about an event in Athens that occurred during the Wehrmacht’s entry into the Greek capital. According to the article, on April 27, 1941, a soldier of the Evzon guard Konstantinos Kukidis was guarded by a flag flying over the Athenian Acropolis . After the Germans approached the Acropolis, the Wehrmacht officer demanded that Kukidis lay down their arms, lower the Greek flag and raise the flag of the Third Reich . Kukidis refused to comply with the requirements of the Germans and instead, turning into a flag, jumped from the Acropolis and crashed to death [1] [2] .
At the place where the event occurred, in 2000 a memorial plaque was installed with the following inscription:
On April 27, 1941, the day the German troops entered Athens, the guard of the Greek flag on the Acropolis and resistance supporter Konstantin Kukidis refused to surrender and jumped down from the shrine. The stone was erected by the municipality of Athens under mayor Dim. L. Avramopoulos together with the Association of National Resistance in 2000.
Original text (Greek)27 Απριλιου 1941, την Ημέρα εισόδου των γερμανικών στρατευμάτων στην Αθήνα ο Κωνσταντίνος Κουκίδης φρουρός τής Ελληνικής σημαίας στην Ακρόπολη αρνούμενος να την παράδοση έπεσε απο τον ιερό βράχο τυλιγμένος σε αυτή πρωτοπόρος του αντιστασιακού αγώνα. Στήλη τοποθετήθηκε απο τον Δήμο Αθηναίων επί Δημαρχίας Δημ. Λ. Αβραμόπουλου σεσσννεργασία με την Κίνηση Ενωμένη Εθνικ ντίσταση το Ετος 2000.
Reliability
Nevertheless, the fact of the feat is disputed by many people, since the facts of the existence of the Kukidis and especially of his achievement were not established. One of the rare sources of information was the New Democracy Party , which indicated that Kukidis really existed and at the same time was a member of the National Youth Organization under the Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas . On April 26, 2000, the mayor of Athens, Dimitris Avramopoulos, said in an interview with the Eleftherotipiya newspaper that documentary evidence clearly confirming the existence of Kukidis and his accomplishment did not exist, and this legend was probably invented by the Greeks to raise morale. Director of the Department of History of the Army of Greece, Lieutenant-General Ioannis Kakudakis said that the existence of Kukidis could not be verified [3] .
Nowadays, soldiers continue to carry the guard of the flag over Athens. The flag rises in the mornings at 6:30 and descends at dusk by ordinary soldiers, and evzons in their traditional form raise and lower the flag on Sundays. However, the fact that the flag with the swastika rose above the Acropolis is not disputed: on May 30, 1941, Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas tore it down and tore it into pieces [4] .
See also
- Glezos, Manolis
- Santas, Apostolos
- Children Heroes (Mexico)
- Matrosov, Alexander Matveyevich
Notes
- ↑ William Manchester. The Glory and the Dream: A Narrative History of America, 1932-1972 . - RosettaBooks, 1973. - ISBN 978-0-7953-3557-0 .
- ↑ Greek Evzone (rus.)
- ↑ Ο ήρωας φάντασμα , iospress.gr; accessed 8 December 2014. (Greek)
- ↑ What to see on and around the Acropolis (English)