Since the end of the19th century, the area of Goudi in north-western Athens has been a military zone with many Greek army camps. The camp was one of the most important during the Greco-Italian War as a training centre. In the autumn of 1943, Section I of the Wehrmacht’s Transit Camp 135 (Durchgangslager / Dulag 135) was transferred to Goudi. Beforehand, it was in Nea Kokkinia as a prisoner-of-war camp and previously in Zagreb and on the Eastern Front. It was subordinate to Army Group E in Belgrade and had the military post office number 34670.[1] Although it was a typical POW camp, hundreds of Greek civilians who had been arrested for involvement in the Resistance passed through it, most of whom were deported to Germany. During the same period, the 1st Athens Evzones Regiment was installed in the barracks in Goudi. “Surrounded by high fences, elevated watchtowers, with machine guns and double-barrelled rifles at the gate, it was the castle of the tagmatasfalites [security battalionists] in the capital.”[2] The headquarters of the Evzones was stationed in the “Barbara Kaserne” at the southeastern corner of the compound, with a force of 130 officers, 327 non-commissioned officers and 1,447 privates.[3] From the autumn of 1943, almost together with the formation of the Evzone Battalions, the camp also served as a detention centre for resistance fighters, members of the EAM-ELAS organisations who were mainly arrested in groups. According to the few testimonies available, the prisoners were placed in a large group cell in the building that served as headquarters. Michalis Vasiliou, who was arrested on 14 July 1944 during an SD raid in the neighbourhood of Gkyzi, describes the reception of the arrested: “After they passed through the gate, they continued until they were brought to the centre of the camp, to a two-storey stone building that was the headquarters. There they were ordered to sit down. Shortly afterwards, a group of soldiers with belts came out of the headquarters and, after beating about thirty of them, took them upstairs, hitting them on the body and head. They took them all upstairs in the same way. On the upper floor, where the staircase ended, on the right, there was a wooden double door. The chamber was huge and full.[4] In 1943-1944, Goudi became a key hub for the system of detention, transfers, executions and deportations to German camps. In December 1943, 188 residents of Kalamata were deported via Goudi (Dulag 135/I) to Dachau. On 14 August 1944, all prisoners in Goudi were transferred to Haidari and from there deported to Nazi Germany.
Postwar, the Goudi barracks housed the Army’s cavalry. In 1945, the Armoured Corps School was established to train officers and soldiers, but it only operated for a few months. In September 1954 the school returned to Goudi as the Armoured Training Centre and operated until July 1975, when it was transferred to Avlona, Attica. In 1977, the Greek Parliament passed Law 732/77, which provided for the transfer of 965 acres to the Municipalities of Athens and Zografou, with the aim of creating a green space, which today forms the core of the Metropolitan Park in Goudi. In 2001 it was also decided to create sports facilities in view of the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens (Badminton court). Since 2004, the buildings of the former royal stables are the home of the National Sculpture Gallery. To this day, Goudi is home to Greek army facilities, such as the Supreme Military Command for Army Support (Zorba camp), the Athens Guard Headquarters (Variti Camp) and the Military Archives Service, as well as the Greek Police’s Sub-Directorate for the Restoration of Order. The Metropolitan Park in Goudi is currently the only large, free, public space in Athens, a unified urban landscape in which the natural features, the history of the area and the architectural value of its buildings play a major role.
[1] Alexander Kruglov, Durchgangslager 135, in: Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, Vol. IV: Camps and Other Detention Facilities under the German Armed Forces, edited by Geoffrey P. Megargee, Rüdiger Overmans, Wolfgang Vogt, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Indiana University Press, Bloomington 2022, p. 86.
[2] Michael A. Vassiliou, Apostoli sto Biblis [Transport to Biblis], To Pontiki, Athens 1988, p. 53.
[3] BArch, RH 34/263 Annex to Athens City Command Tgb. No. 730/44 geh., List of troops present in Athens, 10.4.1944.
[4] Vasiliou, Transport to Biblis, p. 53.
