The Vouliagmenis Street Prison, or Parapigmata (outbuildings) was located on what is now Lambraki Hill in the Kynosargos neighborhood (Neos Kosmos) between Vouliagmenis – Zefksidos and Pythou Streets (formerly Chersikratous). Before the war, the building served as a Greek Army ammunition depot, and during the German Occupation, it was converted into a detention facility for resistance fighters and civilians, mostly men. It is not known exactly when the conversion took place; most likely after October 1943. Prisoners arrested both during SiPo/SD raids, as well as those convicted by military courts, usually transferred from the Wehrmacht’s military prison in Athens (Averof).
Although we do not have sufficient information, the condition of the building was particularly poor and suggests that it was not intended for long-term detention. Theodosis Karageorgakis from Tympaki, Iraklio was taken to the Agia Prison and in mid-January 1944 was transferred to Vouliagmenis Prison via Averof Prison: “The barracks had once been powder magazines of the Greek army. All the walls were old. The doors were broken. The ceiling consisted of ancient, half-rotten planks, full of woodworms, whose attacks kept us from getting a wink of sleep all night. Our food was the same as at Averof. Bulgur, lentils without oil. The only things strictly forbidden to us were the sun and cigarettes […] How many gold rings were sold for twenty or thirty cigarettes at most, to the prison guards, Germans and Greeks alike?”[1]
According to available data, the Vouliagmeni Street Prison served primarily as a transit camp for deportation to Nazi Germany. From March to August 1944, a total of 282 male prisoners were deported from there to the Brandenburg Penitentiary (Zuchthaus Brandenburg-Görden) in four transports.[1] The majority of them were convicts sentenced by Italian and German military courts, some as early as 1942; 39 had been captured during a raid in Pagrati, Athens on August 28, 1944.[2] During the Civil War, the “Parapigmata” building housed the Athens Military Prisons (SFA) for a time, before they were transferred to the exile island of Makronissos.[3] It continued to operate as a prison, initially as a remand prison and later as a juvenile detention center. In 1951, the 6th High School for Boys was inaugurated near the facilities (today the 6th Gymnasium and Lyceum of Athens). The prison was demolished in the 1970s; a park and recreational area now stand in its place.
[1] “Arrivals on June 20, 1944 from Athens,” 1.2.2.1/12116672/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives
[2] Alexios Ntetorakis-Exarchou, Greek forced laborers in Nazi Germany: The Greek prisoners of Brandenburg-Görden, master’s thesis, Humboldt University of Berlin/University College Dublin, 2019.
[3] Digital Museum of Makronissos, Prisoners in the Athens Military Prisons (Vouliagmenis Street) https://www.makronissos.org/fotografia/kratoumeni-stis-stratiotikes-filakes-athinon-odos-vouliagmenis/ (last accessed: 11/8/2025).. A Struggle with Death], n.d., p. 17.
[2] “Arrivals on June 20, 1944 from Athens,” 1.2.2.1/12116672/ITS Digital Archive, Arolsen Archives
[3] Alexios Ntetorakis-Exarchou, Greek forced laborers in Nazi Germany: The Greek prisoners of Brandenburg-Görden, master’s thesis, Humboldt University of Berlin/University College Dublin, 2019.
[4] Digital Museum of Makronissos, Prisoners in the Athens Military Prisons (Vouliagmenis Street) https://www.makronissos.org/fotografia/kratoumeni-stis-stratiotikes-filakes-athinon-odos-vouliagmenis/ (last accessed: 11/8/2025).
