During my latest visit to Hellas, I toured Part B of the NHM’s exhibition ‘From Great … to Contemporary Hellas’.
Housed on the upper floor of the former Parliament House (less than 300 metres from Syntagma Square). Closing on 30 June 2025 should be on every visitor’s ‘to-do’ list—especially those of us from Australia.
The Refugees focuses on how waves of refugees have created the demographic transformation of the Hellenic Republic (aka Greece). The exhibition opens with the War of Independence (1821-1830) and concludes with the aftermath of the Genocides of the Hellenes, Armenians and Assyrians (1914-1924).
Expect to be confronted and challenged by this exhibition. Amongst the first exhibits are a pair of human skulls, victims of the massacre of the island of Chios in 1824, immortalised by Eugène Delacroix in his painting of that name.
The Refugees is divided into four sections: Causes – Uprooting – Reconstruction – Memory. A striking aspect of the exhibition is its focus on the person at the heart of the stories related through artefacts, documents, videos, interviews and animations. The text accompanying each item is factual, avoiding overt emotion and jingoistic rhetoric. The exhibition’s homepage states: «The causes [of refugees] illustrate the reasons which lead someone to suddenly and without preparation abandon their home: wars, persecutions, border changes, population exchanges and more.»
The second section deals with the difficult search for sanctuary, from which not everyone survived, the precious items the survivors brought with them, the reception they received upon arrival and the initial efforts at humanitarian relief.
From an Australian point of view, a key absence from the exhibition is any reference to the international dimension of the relief efforts, especially from 1916 onwards. Between 1922 and 1924, the League of Nations Commissioner for Refugees was Ballarat-born Major George Devine Treloar. He designed and led the first wave phase of humanitarian relief efforts for the survivors who reached northern Hellas.
The third section of the exhibition deals with the temporary and later permanent settlement of the survivors who had been driven from their homes by genocidal persecution. The development of health care, employment opportunities, education and community life.
In its 28 October 1925 edition, the Eleutheron Vema newspaper wrote the following:
«I do not have […] but to direct the following advice to every Hellene: Every refugee you see on the street, the last rag-wearing and black-clothed woman, is worthy of all our reverence. They are living monuments of Great Hellas; they are the devotion to the homeland representative, they are the embodiment of the national suffering and the beautiful hope for tomorrow.»
The fourth section—arguably the most important—examines the collective memory of the genocide survivors as it is expressed through music, athletic associations, community organisations, literature, and cinema.
The exhibition’s exclusive sponsor is the Piraeus Bank through its «Commemorative Days of Hellenism, 1922-1924» Program, which is in honour of the Centenary of the Asia Minor Catastrophe and the Treaty of Lausanne. The programme aims to strengthen memory and enrich historical research around this crucial period of Hellenism’s history.
Visit https://www.nhmuseum.gr/ektheseis/periodikes/item/17578-oi-prosfyges-ta-animation-tis-ekthesis to watch the animations developed, especially for this unique exhibition.
If you visit Athens in the next six months, do yourself a favour. Visit the NHM’s The Refugees exhibition. In less than an hour, you will learn much about the men, women and children who found sanctuary in Hellas and shaped its society.
