Iro Konstantopoulou
Iro Konstantopoulou | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | July 16, 1927 Athens, Greece |
| Died | September 5, 1944 (aged 16–17) |
| Nationality | Greek |
| Occupation | Greek resistance member |
Iro Konstantopoulou was a member of the Greek resistance during World War II. She worked with the resistance in Greece to hinder the Axis occupation of the country for three years before being captured, tortured, and executed aged seventeen in September 1944.[1][2]
Biography
Konstantopoulou was born into a wealthy Greek family in 1927. She was 13 when the Axis Powers invaded and occupied Greece during the Second World War. Iro joined the United Panhellenic Organization of Youth, a Greek resistance movement, in which she worked to steal messages and monitor troop movements.[3] She was caught performing these activities, but was able to avoid punishment due to her father bribing local authorities.[1][2][4]
In early 1944 Iro was involved in a successful resistance operation to blow up a train carrying ammunition; soon after, a double agent working within the Greek resistance revealed her identity to the German occupational forces. Iro was arrested on her way home from high school on 31 July 1944; according to one source, she had finished her final high school exams that morning.[2] She was subjected to several days of torture, but refused to divulge the names of her fellow resistance members. As a German speaker, Iro was noted as having been able to insult her captors in their own language.[2] Following her interrogation, she was transported to Haidari concentration camp outside of Athens. There, she and 49 other members of the resistance were executed by firing squad on 5 September 1944, just over a month before Athens was liberated by Allied forces.[2] Some sources report that Iro's body was shot 17 times, one bullet for each year of her life, as a warning to other members of the resistance.[1][4][3]
Legacy
Konstantopoulou's actions during the war were commemorated by a statue of a young girl in Terpsithea Square in Piraeus.[3][5] In 1981, Iro's life was depicted in the Greek film 17 Bullets for an Angel: The True Story of Hero Konstantopoulou.[5]
References
- ^ a b c "On this day, September 5, 1944 a Greek heroine is killed · Greek City Times". Greek City Times. 2017-09-05. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
- ^ a b c d e "Women Resistance Fighters of WWII". The TimeGhost Army. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
- ^ a b c "Ηρώ Κωνσταντοπούλου: 17 ναζιστικές σφαίρες για μια αντιστασιακή". iNewsgr.com (in Greek). Retrieved 2018-10-11.
- ^ a b "Konstantopoulou, Iro (1927-1944)". www.gedenkorte-europa.eu. Retrieved 2018-10-11.
- ^ a b ©, TheCaller.gr (2018-07-16). "Την εκτέλεσαν με 17 σφαίρες όσες και η ηλικία της- Η Ηρώ Κωνσταντοπούλου που βασανίστηκε από Ταγματασφαλίτες και Ες-Ες". TheCaller.gr (in Greek). Retrieved 2018-10-11.
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