The nation lowered its flags and bowed in respect to a great Greek

A lot has been said about Manolis Glezos, the proud Greek who was the first to publicly stand up to the Nazis and humiliate Hitler by taking down the swastika flag from the Acropolis.

He was a symbol of the resistance, captured and tortured by the Germans, but also, unfortunately, by the Greeks later, becoming sick with tuberculosis, a man who was branded a spy and sentenced to death. He was a political prisoner whose release was championed by eminent international figures from Charles de Gaulle to Albert Camus, Jean-Paul Sartre and Pablo Picasso.

Glezos had the kind of force of spirit that is so sadly lacking today and, in spite of his hardships, he never succumbed to fanaticism. A relatively recent case in point was an incident three years ago when the then leftist parliament speaker tried to prevent the German ambassador in Athens at the time, Peter Schoof, from...

Continue reading on: