The Antiquities of Greece and World War II

This lecture focuses on how Greece's antiquities fared during World War II, a period of upheaval, displacement and mass death. What were the attitudes of the occupying forces (German, Italian and Bulgarian) to Greece's cultural heritage? How did the perceived role of Greece as one of the major sources of Western civilization impact on the occupiers? How did the Greek authorities prepare during the run-up towards the outbreak of hostilities? What was their stance during the subsequent Occupation? What symbolic role were the antiquities called to serve by the Greeks during these dark years? How did the antiquities themselves fare? These questions frame this lecture which presents insights into a little visited aspect of Greece's recent past.

Event details 

Thursday 7 April, 6.30pm

Free

Registration essential: Join us in the Nelson Meers Foundation Auditorium

Dr Stavros Paspalas has been Director of the AAIA since 2020. He has undertaken fieldwork at Zagora on Andros, Torone in the Chalkidike and on the island of Kythera. His major research interests range from the Early Iron Age Aegean, through to ancient Greek ceramics, and onto Greek-Achaemenid relations.

This talk is presented in conjunction with the Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens as part of the Greek Festival of Sydney Program.