In October 1943, the heart of the Nazi occupation in Greece was found in the Athens city block bounded by Vasilissis Sofias–Sekeris–Merlin–Kanari Streets. The higher SS command offices were located there. In the building of the Greek-French School of Georgios Metaxas at 11 Vasilissis Sofias Street, the Higher SS and Police Leader (Höherer SS- und Polizeiführer) of Greece, Walter Schimana, was installed. At 10 Merlin Street was the headquarters of the Commander of the Security Police (SiPo) and the SD (Befehlshaber für SiPo/SD), Walter Blume. At 3 Merlin Street were the offices of the Counterintelligence Administration of the Military Commander of Greece. In neighboring buildings were housed corresponding services, such as the command of the Ordnungspolizei (also under the SS), at 5 Vasilissis Sofias Street. The entrance to the complex was probably located at 1 Sekeris Street, in the Mitarakis Mansion. Next to it stood the 3rd Police Station (Kolonaki): “A large iron door right beside the police station’s entrance was the doorway to the SS Headquarters. Two petalades, huge men towering high, with automatic weapons in their hands, were positioned at both ends of the door, sullen and fierce-looking.”[1] According to a record from April 1944, the complex housed 34 SS officers, 162 non-commissioned officers and soldiers, and 15 civilian employees—mostly interpreters and agents.[2]
All German police directorates tasked with dismantling resistance groups, Allied units, and persecuting communists, Jews, and other enemies of the Third Reich operated on Merlin Street. In a February 1945 report by the Greek Ministry of Foreign Affairs on war criminals who operated in Greece, we read the following specifically about the Commander of the SiPo/SD: “Captain Blume. Head of the special SD service in Greece, always moving about in civilian clothing, he organized the entire espionage service of Hitlerism in Athens, specialized in the persecution of hidden Israelites, arrested hundreds of Greeks and oversaw their execution. He himself was present at the torture of the arrested Greeks and, with unimaginable sadism, insisted that it be made even more unbearable.”[3]
Few places in the city became so identified with the terror of the Nazi occupation and survived in the urban memory as strongly as “the SS of Merlin Street,” or simply “Merlin.” Hundreds of resistance members and civilians passed through the interrogation offices, where they were interrogated and brutally tortured before being sent for detention, mainly to the Haidari Camp, which was under the authority of Merlin Street. Interrogations were conducted in the presence of interpreters and involved relentless beatings, falanga (beating the soles of the feet), and the use of torture devices such as pulleys, iron hoops, and red‑hot irons. Vangelis Vasilatos, a member of EPON, who was arrested on 17 June 1944, was taken to Merlin Street by the Special Security Police and describes his experience as follows: “I was in the pulley chamber. I didn’t know of this torture. Soon, while I was completely naked, they grabbed me and fastened my hands with handcuffs behind my back, not in front as is usually done, and began pulling the rope. My arms were rising upward and my body leaned forward. They kept pulling. They brought me to the point of uplift, but from the reverse. The pain was terrible. Then they yanked the rope suddenly and my body was lifted about half a meter. I no longer stood on the floor. I was hanging from my arms turned backwards. The weight of my body—about 65–70 kilos—pressed on my wrists (where the handcuffs were) and on my shoulder joints. They pulled the rope a bit more and tied its end to the ring. The pain was unbearable. I was screaming. They continued the interrogation: ‘Speak, what do you know? Which organization are you in? What were you doing?’ At the same time they took the clubs and started hitting me on the back from the top of my head and shoulders down to my legs. My whole body had turned black. Then they took the barbed wire whip and struck with that. Every lash with it tore my flesh and dark blood flowed from here and there and began dripping down. From the terrible pain I fainted. Then they dipped a rag in a bucket full of filthy water and slapped it on my face. I came to immediately. This was repeated two or three times.”[4] Those under interrogation were taken out of the room half-conscious, so that those waiting for their turn could see them, as a form of psychological violence.
The city block Vasilissis Sofias–Merlin–Kanari–Sekeris has undergone many urban changes. The Metaxas School was demolished in 1962, and in its place today stands an office complex of an insurance company. The Mitarakis Mansion was demolished in 1967. The building at 6 Merlin Street, where the interrogation offices were located, has also been demolished, and a beauty products store occupies the site. On 25 April 1983, an official ceremony was held unveiling a memorial at 6 Merlin Street. The memorial consists of a prison-cell door and a relief sculpture by Thanasis Apartis with the inscription: “Here was the torture chamber of the Gestapo 1941–1944.”
[1] Vassilis Daras, C83. Vios ke viomata enos aplou anthropou [Life and experiences of an ordinary man], Athens 1995, p. 28.
[2] BArch, RH 34/263, Anlage zu Stadtkommandantur Athen, Tgb. Nr. 730/44 geh., Truppenliste der in Athen anwesenden Einheiten, 10.4.1944.
[3] Cited in: Flountzis, Chaidari, p. 109.
[4] Cited in: Flountzis, Haidari, p. 119.
