The Eternal Guard of the Parthenon | Pontios Konstantinos Koukidis 

The Eternal Guard of the Parthenon | Pontios Konstantinos Koukidis who will forever remain in history
The writer Ioannis Giannopoulos explains that during the Greco-Italian war the National Youth Organization (E.O.N.) Thissi branch had decided that its members should perform flag guard duties on the Acropolis.
On 27.04.1941, the seventeen-year-old Pontios Konstantinos Koukidis, who was not an euzzona, but a member of the E.O.N. Thisiou, was performing target duties. At 8 a.m. on Sunday, April 27, 1941, when the Germans of the motorized detachment led by Major Jacobi arrived at the Holy Rock, they asked the guard to lower the flag, he lowered it and instead of handing it over, he wrapped himself in it and heroically fell from the Holy Rock of the Acropolis and was killed by falling on the rocks.
There are reliable testimonies about this event, the most important of which is the Archbishop of Athens and All Greece Chrysanthos, who writes in his diary: "The Greek guard of the Greek flag on the Acropolis, not wanting to witness the sad spectacle of the hoisting of the enemy flag, rushed from the of the Acropolis, fallen and slain."
Also the distinguished historian Nicholas Hammond writes: "On April 27, 1941, shortly before he engraved, everything was closed. Then I learned that the Germans ordered the Acropolis guard to take down the Greek symbol. Indeed, he submitted to her, wrapped himself in her and killed himself by falling from the rock."
The Daily Mail newspaper in its publication from June 9, 1941 writes: "Kostas Koukidis, a Greek soldier who was guarding the national symbol of the Greeks on the Acropolis, wrapped in the blue cloth, threw himself into the void and committed suicide (4-27-1941)".
The event, based on the testimonies of survivors, is described by the research historian Kostas Kostopoulos as follows: "The Hero Soldier hitting the rocks on the way of his fall from the cliff of the Acropolis, when he finally tumbled and fell on Thrasyllou Street in Plaka, he was crushed and the his uniform was torn. When two or three residents of Plaka picked him up, they found nothing on him except a crumpled card on which the name of the recipient, KONSTANTINOS KOUKIDIS, was written very badly."
The resistance fighter Charalambos Roupas in his publication describes his personal experience from a related research that he did much later. While searching, they found a retired cobbler, who was the son of an ice seller who took him with the ice cart and took him to the First Cemetery and who told them: "That day we were locked in our homes, like all of Athens. I was 16 years old then. We heard an old woman squealing on the street.Two or three of us rushed to the road to see what was happening and then we saw this tragic sight. A mangled corpse dressed in khaki and a bloodied flag around him. No papers, wallet, etc. were found on him except for a card with his name on it. The logbook was kept by a friend of my father's, because my father and I used to distribute ice columns to houses, we had a cart. They put the boy inside with the flag, covered him with a blanket and took him with his friend to the First Cemetery. There they found a father and told him what had happened.The priest took them to an open grave, they wrapped the lad in what was left of the flag and then buried him there. The tragic incident was learned by word of mouth and in a short time all of Athens had learned about it."
The educator Popi Paspaliari stated on the ERT show "True Scenarios" that she knew the Koukidis family, who came by boat from Pontus to Katakolo and from there they went to Gastouni. After the death of her husband, mother Fotini and little Konstantinos came to Athens as a maid in the house of Maria Spiliopoulou. Konstantinos was a beautiful and brilliant child, who finished elementary and high school with honors and the Palmer accounting school.
In 2000, during the reign of Dimitrios Avramopoulos as Mayor, a marble commemorative plaque was built on the rock in Thrasylou street, where the hero guard fell, where every year a memorial service is held continuously at the initiative of the Panhellenic Union of Pontian Officers "Alexanders Ypsilantis". But it is surprising how such a great and heroic sacrifice did not receive official recognition from the State and posthumous honors, as has been done in similar cases.
'The Great Sea' by Scott Buckley - released under CC-BY 4.0. www.scottbuckley.com.au
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