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2024 - Volume 7 - Number 1

The Nazi Hospital in Thessaloniki and the Murals of its Air Raid Shelter

Nikolaos Sferopoulos * ORCID: 0000-0001-5970-844X
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, “G. Gennimatas” Hospital, Thessaloniki, GREECE

Open Journal for Studies in History, 2024, 7(1), 45-60 * https://doi.org/10.32591/coas.ojsh.0701.4045s
Received: 17 April 2024 ▪ Revised: 26 August 2024 ▪ Accepted: 23 September 2024

LICENCE: Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

ARTICLE (Full Text - PDF)

ABSTRACT:
A preexisting general Hospital hosted the Nazi Hospital during the German occupation of Thessaloniki. In its courtyard, the Nazi Germans had built an underground air raid shelter. This study presents the available literature on the Ottoman and Greek history of the building and the Nazi Hospital operation with emphasis on the three murals found in the small-sized operating theatre of the air raid shelter. The potential identity of the Nazi writers and the period of inscription are obscure. The first mural admits that the enemy is better armed and has a reasonable degree of human desperation after a long-lasting war, realizing that victory could come via weapons of mass destruction rather than fighting on the battlefield. The two other murals referring to two distinct places in the Balkans, including the Varda Mountain and Demir Kapija Canyon, had been chosen by the Nazi writers as the most desirable places for future settlement after military retirement. They indicate the hope for victory, even if it means using biological weapons, and a sunny piece of the writers’ nature, considering the potential desire for family life in a small home in the landscape of the idyllic rising sun among the mountainsides.

KEY WORDS: Nazi Hospital, Thessaloniki, air raid shelter, murals.

CORRESPONDING AUTHOR:
Nikolaos Sferopoulos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, “G. Gennimatas” Hospital, Thessaloniki, GREECE.

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