Eleni Papadaki (

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

: Ελένη Παπαδάκη, 4 November 1903 – 22 December 1944) was a celebrated Greek stage actress who was murdered during the

Dekemvriana The ''Dekemvriana'' ( el, Δεκεμβριανά, "December events") refers to a series of clashes fought during World War II in Athens from 3 December 1944 to 11 January 1945. The conflict was the culmination of months of tension between the c ...

events, accused for political reasons by the communists, of having collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces and the collaborationist regime during the Axis occupation.

Biography

She was born on 4 November 1903 in Athens to an affluent family, the granddaughter of university professor Stylianos Konstantinidis. She studied philology at Athens University, phonetics, music and piano at the Great Conservatory of Athens, but began an acting career at the age of twenty-two in 1925, in

Luigi Pirandello Luigi Pirandello (; 28 June 1867 – 10 December 1936) was an Italian dramatist, novelist, poet, and short story writer whose greatest contributions were his plays. He was awarded the 1934 Nobel Prize in Literature for "his almost magical power ...

's ''

Six Characters in Search of an Author ''Six Characters in Search of an Author'' ( it, Sei personaggi in cerca d'autore, link=no ) is an Italian play by Luigi Pirandello, written and first performed in 1921. An absurdist fiction, absurdist metatheatrical, metatheatric play about th ...

''. The theatre critic for the ''Demokratia'' newspaper greeted her performance with the comment that "today the stage has acquired a great actress". At the same time, she also performed in

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

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Salome Salome (; he, שְלוֹמִית, Shlomit, related to , "peace"; el, Σαλώμη), also known as Salome III, was a Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II, son of Herod the Great, and princess Herodias, granddaughter of Herod the Great, an ...

''. Her most successful performances during the last part of her career was in ancient Greek tragedies. During the Axis occupation of Greece she has been accused of being the mistress of the collaborationist prime minister

Ioannis Rallis Ioannis Rallis ( el, Ιωάννης Δ. Ράλλης; 1878 – 26 October 1946) was the third and last collaborationist prime minister of Greece during the Axis occupation of Greece during World War II, holding office from 7 April 1943 to 12 Oct ...

including right-wing newspapers of the Greek Resistance.Κόκκινος Δεκέμβρης Τάσος Κωστόπουλος Το ζήτημα της επαναστατικής βίας, εκδόσεις Βιβλιόραμα 2016 σελ 125 Finally, Eleni Papadaki was executed in Athens on 22 December 1944, during the "Dekemvriana" events, by communists of the OPLA. She had been denounced by a rival actress and after a council of the actors of the National Theatre, who had her expelled for collaboration with the Germans.

Sources

{{DEFAULTSORT:Papadaki, Eleni 1903 births 1944 deaths Actresses from Athens Greek stage actresses People sentenced to death by ELAS 20th-century Greek actresses Greek collaborators with Nazi Germany