Two Students Tore Down the Nazi Flag From the Acropolis in 1941
On the night of May 30, 1941, two young Greek students climbed the Acropolis and ripped down the Nazi swastika flag flying from its mast. Manolis Glezos and Lakis Santas were unarmed, carrying only a small lantern and a knife.
The plan had been weeks in the making. The two had gone to the National Library and studied the Acropolis in a major encyclopedia, mapping every cave and passage until they found the one route that could get them past the German guards, through the Pandroseion Cave. Greece had just fallen completely, with the capture of Crete announced on the radio that same morning.
They reached the flagpole just before midnight and pulled down the enormous swastika, measuring four meters by two.
They moved at 9:30 that night. The German garrison was gathered at the Propylaea entrance, drinking and distracted. Glezos and Santas cut through the wire, crawled to the cave, and climbed up the scaffolding archaeologists had left from excavations. They reached the flagpole just before midnight and pulled down the enormous swastika, measuring four meters by two.
German guards discovered the missing flag the next morning and went into a panic. The occupation authorities ordered immediate interrogations, and a replacement flag was only raised at 11 a.m. The soldiers of the garrison were executed. The Greek police commanders of the surrounding districts were dismissed from their posts.
Glezos and Santas were sentenced to death in absentia. Both survived the occupation. Glezos was arrested three times by the Germans and escaped each time. Santas eventually joined the Greek resistance army ELAS.
The act is widely considered the first act of organized resistance in occupied Athens. It took place just one month after the Germans had entered the city. By September of that same year, the two major Greek resistance organizations, EAM and EDES, had been founded.
