The eight‑story apartment building on 72 Tsimiski Street (now 64 Tsimiski) was built in the 1930s. During the Occupation it was requisitioned to serve as the headquarters of Unit 621 of the German Secret Military Police (GFP). Based on various testimonies and descriptions, the fourth floor housed the interrogation area, while the basement had been converted into holding cells. After their interrogation, detainees who were not released were transferred either to other services in the city of Thessaloniki or to the Pavlos Melas camp.
In July 1945, D. Kontoudis recounted his memories of his arrest and detention in the building: “Someone preceded me in the interrogation room. A young man, a laborer judging by his clothing. They had him seated next to a large table. His right hand was placed in a strange handcuff that was screwed onto the table. I thought it was a precautionary measure to prevent an escape and found it excessive. How could anyone, even if left alone escape from the fourth floor of the building, where the ‘interrogation room’ was located? Soon the interrogator, Lieutenant Hertel, made me understand the real purpose of the handcuff. He grabbed the fingers of the man’s right hand and broke them one by one! The room filled with the victim’s screams of pain and with the awful ‘crack—crack’ made by the breaking of finger joints. He said nothing—either because he did not want to or because, as happened in most cases, he knew nothing. They dragged him out of the room like a dead dog. Laughing and cheerful. Surely pleased because they were faithfully carrying out the orders they had been given and at the same time fulfilling their duty as German… patriots!”[1]
After the War, the building belonged to the National Bank of Greece. It was purchased by the Trastor Housing Company and operated as a store of the clothing and footwear company Fokas until 2014. In 2019 it was leased by Inditex, specifically for the group’s brand Pull & Bear, which specializes in young men’s and women’s clothing as well as accessories and currently operates as a store (ground floor). Residential and urban planning changes in Thessaloniki have led to mistaken identifications of the building because of the changes in the street renumbering that had occurred in the meantime.[2]
[1] Proini Ora (Morning Time), 16 July 1945.
[2] Spyros Alevropoulos, “Tsimiski 64,” Thessaloniki Lost City, 31 October 2024, https://archive.saloni.ca/3200 (last accessed: 4.3.2026).
