Greek Neo-Nazi Shown Training Children To Perform ‘Heil Hitler’ Salute

Image by getty images
A Greek newspaper has released a video apparently showing a senior Golden Dawn leader teaching two small children how to give the Nazi salute and chant “Heil Hitler.”
The video released by the Kathimerini paper on Monday was apparently shot on the cell phone of party deputy leader Christos Pappas and is part of the evidence to be brought against him in the upcoming trial against Golden Dawn leaders.
Golden Dawn has long argued that they are not Nazis but only Greek nationalists and patriots.
The video shows a small boy clad all in white wearing a Nazi swastika armband and holding a swastika pennant while being encouraged by Pappas to chant “Heil Hitler,” and give the Nazi salute. In a second scene, a young girl also repeatedly chants and salutes.
Many of Golden Dawn’s leaders are awaiting trial on charges of running a criminal organization. The party, which has 18 seats in the Greek Parliament, has been accused of being behind dozens of racist attacks on immigrants. It frequently uses Nazi imagery and its leaders have denied the existence of Nazi death camps and gas chambers.
As part of attempts to crack down on the party Greek lawmakers recently passed a law with harsher penalties for inciting racial violence and denying the Holocaust. However the law cannot be applied retroactively.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism you rely on. Make a Passover gift today!
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Most Popular
- 1
News Student protesters being deported are not ‘martyrs and heroes,’ says former antisemitism envoy
- 2
News Who is Alan Garber, the Jewish Harvard president who stood up to Trump over antisemitism?
- 3
Fast Forward Suspected arsonist intended to beat Gov. Josh Shapiro with a sledgehammer, investigators say
- 4
Opinion What Jewish university presidents say: Trump is exploiting campus antisemitism, not fighting it
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward Jewish students, alumni decry ‘weaponization of antisemitism’ across country
-
Opinion I first met Netanyahu in 1988. Here’s how he became the most destructive leader in Israel’s history
-
Opinion Why can Harvard stand up to Trump? Because it didn’t give in to pro-Palestinian student protests
-
Culture How an Israeli dance company shaped a Catholic school boy’s life
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.