Georgios Poulos (Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

Georgios Poulos

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Colonel Georgios Poulos was a Nazi collaborator during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II. A longtime ultra-nationalist, Colonel Poulos was fanatically anti-monarchistand anti-communist. In 1943, he organised and led the Poulos Verband, the most feared collaborationist death squad in occupied-Greece. During 1944, his forces were reinforced by theJagdkommando Schubert, a paramilitary unit raised in Crete by the notorious Friedrich Schubert.

Poulos participated in Sonderkommando 2000, a German counter intelligence unit which aimed at infiltrating the Greek resistance movement. Poulos also worked for the National Union of Greece (EEE), an antisemitic party sponsored by the SS. He and his forces organised and committed many crimes in the rural areas of Greece; the most notorious was the attack onGiannitsa in September 1944, during which about a hundred peasants were executed. The aim of the executions was to instill terror into the supporters of the left-wing EAM/ELAS, as Giannitsa was considered an important resistance centre. However, Poulos and his men killed in an indiscriminate fashion and it is probable that most of the victims had little to do with the Resistance. In March 1945, Poulos and his unit were transferred to Austria, where they remained until the end of the war. In 1947, Colonel Poulos was convicted of treason and executed.