Cartoon from a handwritten newspaper created by teenager George Ftikas and his friend, which was distributed throughout their neighborhood in Salonika.

Photograph | Digitized | Photograph Number: 76332

Overview

Caption: Cartoon from a handwritten newspaper created by teenager George Ftikas and his friend, which was distributed throughout their neighborhood in Salonika.

The cartoon in entitled, "The Satire of People at War." The caption reads, "I tan i ... ta petas" (Return alive or ... throw away everything and run), a play on the traditional admonition to Spartan soldiers "I tan I epi tas," (Return with your shield or on it [dead, but with honor]).

The cartoon mocks the Italian soldiers, who attacked Greece from Albania in in October 1948, assuming that they would have an easy victory. Instead, Greek forces pushed Italian troops back to the border, and Germany was forced to call their troops from the eastern front in to intervene. Greek forces were subdued soon after, but this redirection of forces delayed the German invasion of the Soviet Union, causing them to fight in the winter and leading to their ultimate defeat.
Date: 1943
Locale: Salonika, [Macedonia] Greece
Variant Locale: Thessaloniki
Saloniki
Salonica
Solun
Photo Credit: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, courtesy of George Ftikas

Photo Source: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Copyright: United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Provenance: George Ftikas