Writer-scholar N.J. Slabbert, creator of the Sword Of Zeus Project on Greece’s role in WWII, has urged Britain to return the Parthenon Marbles immediately to honor Greece’s WWII dead.
The Marbles, also called the Elgin Marbles, are a collection of ancient artifacts held in London’s British Museum. They were removed from the Acropolis of Athens by a British diplomat, Lord Elgin, in the early 19th century.
Mr. Slabbert says Greece was a crucial ally who helped Britain turn the tide in her war of national survival against Hitler, and that this historical background raises questions of moral debt that are quite separate from other arguments for returning the Marbles. “Imagine if the British Museum had, for whatever reason, come into possession of a chunk of the Statue of Liberty. Can there be any doubt that at the end of WWII, it would have been sent back to New York post haste to mark Britain's gratitude for the help it had received in coming through the war? Regardless of the legal and academic arguments of the museum holding on to it? The only reason that explains why this did not happen with the Elgin Marbles is that Greece could not wield the power that postwar America commanded. This is a sad and dim reflection on the relationships between Britain and its allies. It is not worthy of the moral stature that Britons like to associate with their country." The movement to return the Marbles, Mr. Slabbert says, is “one of the most significant, positive and valuable cultural campaigns in recent history.”
The Zeus WWII research and education initiative is based in Washington DC and chaired by Greek-American industrialist Aris Melissaratos, who heads the commercialization of new technologies and research discoveries at Johns Hopkins University. Mr. Mellissaratos says the author’s call is timely and thoughtful. While the return has been supported on general ethical and cultural grounds by other public intellectuals including Nobel Prizewinning author Nadine Gordimer and journalist Christopher Hitchens, he says, “Mr. Slabbert’s WWII perspective brings an important nuance to the subject by relating it to the question of what Britain owes Greece for the massive Greek contribution to the war against the Axis. His argument to return the Marbles as a gesture of thanks to Greece for its fallen sons and daughters is very compelling. I hope the British authorities will look at this argument carefully and agree that the time has come to return the Marbles to Athens where they rightfully belong.”
Dr. Peter N. Yiannos, President of the American Foundation for Greek Language and Culture (AFGLC) for Delaware, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, commented: “N.J. Slabbert has creatively and validly related the Marbles issue to WWII. I urge Hellenes and Philhellenes to go to the Zeus website and take time to absorb its well-reasoned, eloquent message.”
The multimedia Zeus WWII research and education initiative, based in Washington DC, encompasses a website, several forthcoming books and film projects about the psychological and other relationships between Greece and other nations prior to, during and after WWII.
Mr. Slabbert’s argument on the Marbles is set out in his forthcoming book The Sword Of Zeus: The Hidden Story Of How Greece Shaped World War II. The book says strong preoccupations with the Hellenic cultural legacy existed among leaders of both Germany and Britain. The story of the Elgin Marbles, it argues, can be properly understood only in the context of this cultural psychology, which shaped British and German attitudes and policies toward Greece in ways that continue to have repercussions today.
Initial research for the book was funded by Baltimore-based industrialist Jimmy Stavrakis, CEO and founder of Adcor, a manufacturing firm. Mr. Slabbert’s advisors include Rear Admiral (Ret.) Sotirios Georgiadis, former Inspector General of the Hellenic Navy, and Greek NATO liaison expert Brigadier General (Ret.) Stergios Smirlis.
Information on the Marbles Campaign, Mr. Slabbert’s plea and the Zeus Project can be found at
http://www.parthenonuk.com/DynaLink/ID/462/newsdetail.php.
