When Nazi Germany invaded Greece in April 1941, the occupation that followed unleashed a wave of collaboration, terror, and violence that would scar the country for generations. Among the most feared figures to emerge from that period was Georgios Poulos, a disgraced Greek army lieutenant colonel who built a brutal collaborationist battalion that fought alongside the Germans against civilians as well as resistance fighters. . Born in Romania in 1889 to a Greek family, Poulos later settled in Thessaloniki and pursued a military career in the Hellenic Army.
He reportedly served during the Greco-Turkish War of 1919–1922, though little is known about his role in that campaign. By 1935, he had reached the rank of lieutenant colonel. That year, however, he took part in the failed Venizelist coup attempt against the monarchy, and the revolt collapsed within days. Following its failure, Poulos was dismissed from the army and forced into retirement.
. When Germany invaded Greece on April 6, 1941, with around 680,000 troops spearheaded by armored divisions, Greek and British Commonwealth forces were quickly overwhelmed. Thessaloniki fell swiftly, and by late April Athens had also fallen, leaving mainland Greece under Axis control. After the occupation began, Poulos attempted to establish himself as a political leader under German protection.
He assumed leadership of an ultra-nationalist organization, which he reorganized as the National Socialist Party of Greece, using leaflets and public propaganda to promote cooperation with Nazi Germany while denouncing communists and the Allies. Despite his enthusiasm, the Germans regarded his political ambitions with suspicion, and by autumn 1941 his organization had effectively ceased to operate. Poulos nevertheless remained valuable to the occupiers. During the summer of 1941, he supplied German authorities with lists naming suspected left-wing activists and Freemasons in Thessaloniki.
On July 5, 1941, German authorities arrested 278 people believed connected to resistance activities. After his political organization was dissolved, Poulos became an informant for the German counterintelligence unit known as Sonderkommando 2000. Throughout 1942, he gathered intelligence on resistance networks and became one of the principal Greek collaborators in northern Greece. He also published pro-German articles in the collaborationist newspaper Nea Evropi under the pseudonym “A True Greek.
His activity quickly made him a target of the Greek resistance. On August 31, 1941, members of the Communist Party of Greece attempted to burn down his headquarters but were discovered before they could carry out the attack. Three months later, on the night of December 23, resistance members attempted to assassinate him by bombing his house. He survived both attacks, and the German authorities subsequently moved him to a new residence under their protection.
Having failed as a political figure, Poulos turned to building an armed force. In early 1943, he entered negotiations with the German military administration in Thessaloniki, and an agreement was finalized in May allowing him to organize a volunteer battalion operating alongside the Wehrmacht in anti-partisan operations. The formation became known as the Poulos Verband, a unit that would soon earn a reputation for brutality across northern Greece. The battalion never exceeded approximately 300 men.
British and Greek intelligence reports described many of its members as criminals, adventurers, fanatical anti-communists, and individuals of questionable reputation. Others joined after suffering at the hands of the communist-led resistance, while some enlisted because of poverty or promises of regular pay, food, medical care, and protection for their families. Poulos’s wife also helped recruit volunteers by distributing written invitations. The Germans equipped the battalion with weapons, uniforms, and supplies.
Its members wore German military uniforms bearing insignia of the so-called Hellenic National Army and fought under German command. In September 1943, the SD, the SS intelligence agency, formally incorporated the unit into its organization in Greece and established its headquarters in and around the town of Ptolemaida. From there, Poulos created a network of outposts across Western Macedonia to support German anti-partisan operations. Although presented as a military formation fighting communist guerrillas, the battalion quickly became notorious for its treatment of civilians.
Rather than distinguishing between armed resistance fighters and the local population, its members frequently carried out collective reprisals against entire communities suspected of assisting the communist-led Greek People’s Liberation Army, or ELAS. Villages were raided, homes searched, and civilians arrested with little or no evidence of collaboration with the resistance. Looting became a defining characteristic of the battalion. During operations, Poulos’s men systematically confiscated livestock, grain, clothing, jewelry, money, and other valuables from villages.
Houses were frequently set on fire after being robbed, leaving entire families without shelter or food. Reports from occupied northern Greece described widespread theft and intimidation accompanying almost every operation. . Violence against civilians escalated further.
Witnesses accused members of the battalion of executing villagers without trial, carrying out reprisal killings after resistance attacks, and murdering civilians encountered during sweeps through the countryside. Women were subjected to sexual violence, particularly during operations in the city of Veria, while arbitrary arrests, beatings, and torture became common methods of intimidating the local population. The Poulos Verband rapidly acquired a reputation throughout northern Greece that, according to many contemporary accounts, exceeded even that of the German occupation forces. The battalion also suffered losses.
In April 1944, ELAS attacked one of Poulos’s formations, reportedly killing 83 of his collaborators. Instead of weakening the battalion’s resolve, these losses intensified the cycle of reprisals against civilians suspected of supporting the resistance. Among the worst atrocities associated with Poulos’s unit was the massacre of Hortiatis on September 2, 1944. Acting alongside German forces commanded by the notorious war criminal Fritz Schubert, members of the Poulos Verband surrounded the village near Thessaloniki after resistance fighters had attacked German personnel.
During the operation, around 150 civilians, including women and children, were murdered. Many victims were locked inside buildings that were set on fire, burning them alive. Less than two weeks later, on September 14, 1944, Poulos’s battalion participated in another massacre, this time in the town of Giannitsa. Approximately 120 civilians were killed, numerous homes were burned, women were raped, and many of the male victims were forced to dig their own graves before being executed.
By this stage of the occupation, the name Poulos had become synonymous across northern Greece with collaboration, terror, and indiscriminate violence against civilians. As German forces began withdrawing from Greece in autumn 1944, Poulos and his battalion retreated alongside the Wehrmacht rather than surrendering. Crossing into Yugoslavia and later Austria, they continued fighting with German forces against communist partisans until the final months of the war, remaining loyal to the collapsing Third Reich even as Germany faced inevitable defeat. The Second World War in Europe ended on May 8, 1945.
Poulos and his men were eventually captured by the US 7th Army, which later handed them over to Greece. Georgios Poulos was convicted of treason and collaboration with the German occupation authorities before being executed in Athens on June 11, 1949. He was about 60 years old.
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