The Historical Archive is an integral part of the War Museum and is composed of original documents or documents of various kinds, which came into the possession of the museum through donations from individuals or institutions, but also through selected purchases. The subject matter of the archive concerns, for the most part, the organisation and military history of the Greek Armed Forces and the periods covered are as follows:
✓ Greek Revolution 1821
✓ Othonian period 1832-1862
✓ Period of King George I 1863-1913
✓ Greek-Turkish War 1897
✓ The Balkan Wars 1912-1913
✓ Northern Epirus Struggle 1914
✓ National Schism and the First World War 1914-1918
✓ Asia Minor Campaign 1919-1922
✓ Interwar period
✓ Greek-Italian and Greek-German War 1940-1941
✓ Axis occupation of Greece and the National Resistance 1941-1944
✓ Greek participation in the Middle East operations 1942-1944
✓ Civil War
✓ Korean War 1950-1953
✓ Post-war period
Among other things, the basic documents included in the Historical Archive are:
✓ Personal documents, diaries and letters of protagonists or unknown persons at important moments in modern Greek history.
✓ Diaries, reports and orders of military units.
✓ Newspapers of the front.
✓ Interviews with combatants from various war periods.
✓ Propaganda leaflets.
✓ Numerous 19th and 20th century newspapers.
The Historical Archive of the War Museum is currently being reorganized and access to the site can only be granted after contacting the responsible administrator of the archival collection.
Photographic
The War Museum has a rich photographic archive, with over 35,000 photographs, most of them original. All the material is classified in sections and thematic categories according to the events of Greek history from 1897 to the present day.
The photographic archive of the War Museum is accessible to researchers twice a week, Tuesday and Thursday from 09:00 to 13:00 and digital copies of photographs are available for a fee.
Cinematic
The War Museum has one of the largest archives in the Balkans used exclusively for film production, it has been operating since 1979 (containing material from 1897 until today) and was created from films in the possession of the Greek Army from the old Armed Forces TV (TED, YENED). The images used are the product of a risky effort by the filmmakers of the time to record authentic war events, political current affairs and events of everyday life.
After extensive research in Europe and America, everything related to Greece from 1897 to 1935 was added to the archive, and in combination with the acquisition of the archive of G. Filis (who had done the same research in much more detail), he was able to have material on almost every historical event that happened in Greece and was filmed during this period.
The most important and rarest material is that which has been acquired from private donors who either owned it from third parties or filmed it as amateurs. In 1980, all the material from the 1941-1942 newsreels relating to Greece was purchased from the Germans, as well as a large part of the Italian and English epics. The collection was supplemented with archival material acquired for the productions of Kostas Sismanis for the Museum and the YENED.
The audiovisual archive of the War Museum has in its possession relevant materials concerning Cyprus from 1950 onwards, a radio archive from 1960 with narratives of fighters from the period of the Macedonian Struggle up to the Second World War. The archive includes 16 and 35 mm film and a systematic effort is being made to digitise it.
Recently, the Museum has acquired the film archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the broadcast “On the Epalts”, a brief history of which is given below:
- Film archive of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
It was created with the aim of contributing to the preservation, promotion and exploitation of the country’s audiovisual heritage, recognizing the enormous importance of audiovisual documents for the political, diplomatic, social and cultural history of the country. The material of the film archive includes countless hours of film newsreels from Greece and around the world, propaganda films, excerpts from old and rare documentaries . Indicatively, the films of the Lumieres brothers and Manakia, reports from the Balkan Wars, the Russian Revolution and World War I. Rich topical material refers to the Asia Minor Campaign and the interwar period in Greece and Europe, World War II and the Civil War, the dictatorship, Attila’s invasion of Cyprus up to the return of democracy and the early years of post-independence in Greece. In this context, the Film Archive created the “Documentary Archive”, in cooperation with private producers and institutions, where both contemporary and older Greek documentaries and documentaries of international production of particular interest to Greek history are collected and classified.
- Archive of the YENED and of the “On the Epilepsy” programme
It is an archive of about 150 hours of historical and military topics, as well as the current affairs of that era, from 1950 to 1980.
With the help of the War Museum’s archive, about 70 documentaries (20 to 60 minutes) have been created on the whole of Greek history from 1900 to the present day, about 650 television programmes (entitled “Moments of History” which are added to “Virtue and Courage” which are shown every Sunday on ERT) and about 50 thematic units for the benefit of the General Staff of the Hellenic Armed Forces related to history, Military Units, television spots, etc.
