A painful curse
It was a curse and a painful one at that. It was a brutal act that brings shame on the person who committed it, on the party which he represents, on the Parliament, on Greece and on everything we understand when we hear about morality and culture. At the same time, it was a painful experience for the defenseless victims of his Nazi fixations. It was also a felony of the moral-intellectual kind whose perpetrator has been convicted for collecting fascist memorabilia, as well as truly sad for all that the two helpless toddlers suffered in his hands.
The issue is a video published on Kathimerini’s website on Sunday whose title could very well be “The worse is yet to come,” as revelations regarding the diverse activities of Golden Dawn – from the streets to the camps – confirm that acts of depravity invariably lead to even worse such acts. The protagonist is Golden Dawn’s parliamentary spokesman Christos Pappas, currently in pretrial custody. The victims are two children, still in a mimicking phase, or even better, in a phase of respectfully listening to grownups, especially if it involves promises of ice cream and gift bags.
I don’t know whether Pappas is related to the children in the video and I’m not aware of explanations accompanying the recorded material – one of four similar videos found on his mobile phone. Here’s what we know so far after watching all that we could bear to: A so-called adult is submitting a boy dressed in Greek national holiday gear, with the addition of a swastika on his left hand and a Nazi flag on his right, to a military exercise. Being a connoisseur, he is teaching him how to conduct the best “Heil Hitler,” how to raise his little hand and do the best possible Nazi salute. The adult commends the boy for his efforts and orders him to repeat his achievement. Next to the little boy is a slightly older girl who appears to be more familiar with Nazi ceremonials. She’s also showing the little boy how to stretch out his hand. Despite all this, Pappas and the rest of the brotherhood maintain they are not Nazis, or Nazi supporters, but “nationalist patriots.” Despite the fact that they swear by Adolph and Benito too. Despite the fact that they even try to convert little kids to their bloody religion for which the entire world and (their beloved) Greece in particular paid such a hefty price.
Acting as GD’s accomplices, if not abettors, were the children’s family and friends, all those who enjoyed watching the video with all their (Greek) heart. Also acting as accomplices are those who strengthened the Nazi phenomenon by voting for Golden Dawn, along with those who were tempted to play along with it for political gains. No one plays with democracy or with the soul of a child.
