Greece: In Athens, a Little Known Play Area Commemorates Jewish Children

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Athens, Greece. Pafou Square. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Athens, Greece. Pafou Square. Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Greece: In Athens, a Little Known Play Area Commemorates Jewish Children 

by Samuel D. Gruber

In 1981, Greek Jewish mothers contributed playground equipment to Pafou square in Athens to commemorate 13,000 Greek Jewish children killed by the Nazis. This is not the only Holocaust Memorial in Athens (I'll be writing about at least five others0, but it is the most unexpected.

Pafou Square is not a place that tourists are likely to find and visit, nor are many Athenians likely to wander here. This residential neighborhood of blocky apartments buildings built during Athens' rapid post-World War II expansion is a few stops out from the city center on the the Green Line (#1 Metro line), north of the area of ancient monuments and modern museums.

This is a working and middle class neighborhood, served by public transport. The big streets have plenty of car and pedestrian traffic, but Pafou Square is quiet enclave. It is one-block connector between Michail Voda and Acharnon (streets) a short way from the Aghios Nikolaos metro stop. It is interesting urbanisitically. Within the density of apartment buildings of the area, Pafou was designed with a widened middle. The buildings bend back to open up the space for a small park. In plan, Pafou looks like an 18th-century London garden-park, but in fact, there is little English-style greenery here. The space is mostly paved, though the recreational space is separated from the roadway that runs along the perimeter of the square. 

At the end of the square that is entered from Michail Voda (street) there is a fenced area for ball playing and other games. At the opposite end of the square near the intersection with Acharnon (street) there is a paved plaza,with benches at one end. Along on side is a metal pergola-type structure, whose purpose was unclear to me (perhaps there was once play equipment here?). Across from this is a line of tightly trimmed trees under which is set a low concrete block on its angled top of which is affixed a marble dedicatory and memorial inscription.

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022

Inscription

ТА ΣKΟТΩΣАΝ

ΟΙ NAZI ΣTA KREMATOPIA

НТАΝ 13,000 ΕΛΛНΝΟПΟΥΛА

EBPAIOПАΙΔА

ΓΙΑ ΤΡΥΦΕΡΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΡΑΓΙΚΗ ΘΥΜΗΣΗ ΤΟΥΣ

ΟΙ ΕΛΛΗΝΟΕΒΡΑΙΕΣ ΜΗΤΕΡΕΣ

ΣΥΝΕΒΑΛΑΝ ΣΤΗΝ ΚΑΤΑΣΚΕΥΗ

ΤΩΝ ΠΑΙΧΝΙΔΙΩΝ ΤΟΥ ΠΑΙΔΟΤΟΠΟΥ

 

Translation

They were killed

By the Nazis in the crematoria

They were 13,000 Greek

Jewish children

To their soft and tragic memory

The Greek Jewish mothers

Have contributed to the construction

Of the games in this playground

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022

 

 

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022

 

 

The memorial plaque was defaced in June 2015 with a Nazi swastika and Nazi SS signs. This was cleaned up, but when I saw the plaque in May of 2022, it was messy, though with none of the graffiti had political purpose. More depressing than the ink doodles on the marble is the overall austerity of the entire square. 

I do not know what play equipment the Jewish mothers provided forty years ago, but there is little to be seen today. The park is mostly a paved space, good enough for kicking around a football, playing tag, or jumping rope, but hardly a space the invites creative play, inspires a child's imagination, or if a fitting memorial to 13,000 murdered children. 

When I think of all the playgrounds I've seen in many countries - and as parent, play areas have been and remain a design problem of special interest - this place makes me sad on many levels. I was there on a hot afternoon, and probably the place is livelier in the evenings when people are out. Still, maybe a project could begin to refurbish Pafou Square.

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

 

 

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

Athens, Greece. Holocaust memorial monument at Pafou Square (1981). Photo: Samuel Gruber 2022.

 N.B. Thanks to Elias Messinas with help in transcribing and translating the memorial inscription.