The Academy of Athens’ Refusal to Denounce the National Resistance during the German Occupation

In 1943, the Academy of Athens along with other bodies intervened in support of the freeing of hostages, mostly young people, who had participated in resistance activities against the Occupation forces. It also interceded on behalf of the starving population in an attempt to bring relief to them. The Academy went on to refuse to denounce the National Resistance. As a result of his reply to the Occupation government, the then President of the Academy Spyridon Dontas was suspended from his post for a three-month period. In his reply he stressed the following:

"The patient, in aid of whom we are currently assembled, is in danger of losing her life… Her present desperate condition can have only one cure with which she hopes one day to rid herself of her troubles… Regarding this pathological condition you ask us to recommend to the patient in question, Greece, to discontinue the only treatment at her disposal, which is the actions of her children, in whom she has placed all her hopes."