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{{Short description|Resistance organization during the Axis occupation of Greece in WWII}}
{{redirect|PEAN||Pean (disambiguation)}}
{{Infobox war faction
| name = Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths Πανελλήνιος Ένωσις Αγωνιζόμενων Νέων ''Panellínios Énosis Agonizómenon Néon''
| war = the [[Greek Resistance]]
| image = ΠΕΑΝ.svg
| caption =
| active = 1941–1944
| ideology = [[Greek nationalism]] [[Republicanism]] [[Venizelism]] [[Liberalism]] [[Social democracy]] [[Anti-communism]] [[Anti-fascism]]
| leaders = [[Kostas Perrikos]] [[Panagiotis Kanellopoulos]]
| groups =
| headquarters =
| area = [[Athens]]
| size =
| partof =
| predecessor =
| successor =
| allies = [[National Republican Greek League|EDES]] [[National and Social Liberation|EKKA]] RAN [[Special Operations Executive|SOE]] [[Greek government in exile]]
| opponents = [[Royal Italian Army]] [[German Army (Wehrmacht)|German Army]] [[Kingdom of Bulgaria]] [[Hellenic State (1941–1944)|Collaborationist government]] [[Security Battalions]] [[National Liberation Front (Greece)|EAM/ELAS]]
| battles =
| status =
}}
The '''Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths''' ({{langx|el|Πανελλήνιος Ένωσις Αγωνιζόμενων Νέων}}, ''Panellínios Énosis Agonizómenon Néon'', ΠΕΑΝ, '''PEAN''') was an anti-Nazi and anti-fascist movement that took part in the [[Greek resistance]] during the [[Axis Occupation of Greece]] in the [[Second World War]]. The organization was concentrated in the areas of [[Athens]] and [[Piraeus]], and although it never expanded to become a wider movement, it was one of the most active of the multitude of urban resistance groups that sprung up during the Occupation, and one of the first to carry out active resistance, in the form of bombings.

==History==

===Foundation and political aims===
[[File:Kostas Perrikos.jpg|thumb|right|120px|Kostas Perrikos in Air Force uniform, before the Occupation.]]
The organization was founded in October 1941 by a [[Chios|Chiot]] [[Hellenic Air Force|Air Force]] Lieutenant, [[Kostas Perrikos]]. Perrikos was a fervent [[republicanism|Republican]] who had been dismissed from the Air Force after the failed [[Greek coup attempt of 1935|Venizelist coup attempt]] in March 1935. In June 1941, he was a founding member of the "Army of Enslaved Victors" (Στρατιά Σκλαβωμένων Νικητών, SSN), one of the first resistance groups to spring up after Greece was [[Battle of Greece|overrun by the Germans]] in April 1941. However, Perrikos was dissatisfied by the SSN's neutrality on the crucial issue of the post-war regime (monarchy or republic), and together with a number of others, split off to form the PEAN. The founding members of PEAN were, aside from Perrikos, lawyer Athanasios Dimitrios Skouras, who was chosen as president of the Governing Commission, the lawyers Ioannis Katevatis and Georgios Alexiadis, the merchant Dionysios Papavasilopoulos, the doctor Nikolaos Ailianos and Konstantinos Eleftheriadis.<ref name=Eleftherotypia>''Eleftherotypia'', 8.4.2006</ref> Some of them were members of [[Panagiotis Kanellopoulos]]' {{Interlanguage link multi|National Unionist Party (Greece){{!}}National Unionist Party|el|3=Εθνικόν Ενωτικόν Κόμμα}}, and Kanellopoulos himself would become the group's political mentor.<ref>Fleischer, pp. 15-16.</ref> Through Kanellopoulos, PEAN would develop close cooperation with another organization, the "Sacred Brigade" (Ιερά Ταξιαρχία, ΙΤ).<ref name=Eleftherotypia/>

Politically, PEAN, like most other similar groups formed in that period, was leftist-socialist, advocating "social justice" and state takeover of crucial sectors of the industry, while being vehemently opposed to any return of the monarchy in the person of [[George II of Greece|King George II]]. What set it apart from the majority of them, however, was its insistence on active struggle against the occupying forces. Nevertheless, from the outset, PEAN was engaged in a war of words with both the royalist right and the [[Communist Party of Greece|Communist Party]]-controlled [[National Liberation Front (Greece)|National Liberation Front]] (EAM), which at the time rejected PEAN's calls for sabotage acts and condemned them as "urban terrorism", a bitter feud that would continue throughout the Occupation.<ref>Fleischer, p. 16.</ref>

===The ESPO bombing and aftermath===
[[File:PEAN Museum Building.jpg|thumb|The PEAN Museum building in [[Kallithea]], formerly used a hideout for the organisation]]
PEAN published a number of newspapers, most important of which was ''Doxa'' (Δόξα, "Glory"), first published in April 1942,<ref name=Eleftherotypia/> and gained some popularity among the educated urban youth of Athens. Its most notable achievements, however, are the two bombings carried out by its "destruction squad" (members: Dionysios Papadopoulos, Thanasis Skouras, Antonis Mytilinaios, Spyros Galatis, Dimitrios Lois, Ioulia Bimba). In August 1942, they blew up the headquarters of the Greek pro-Nazi organization OEDE, without causing any casualties. On September 20, the group achieved a more spectacular and ultimately fatal success, when it blew up the headquarters of the [[National-Socialist Patriotic Organisation]] (ESPO), the largest Greek National-Socialist organization, in central Athens. ESPO was trying to recruit volunteers for a "[[Waffen-SS#Foreign volunteers and conscripts|Greek Legion]]" to fight in the [[Eastern Front (World War II)|Eastern Front]] alongside the Germans. A team of four (K. Perrikos, A. Mytilinaios, Sp. Galatis and I. Bimba), carried out the bombing, in which ca. 40 ESPO members and 6 Germans were wounded, most of them severely, including ESPO's founder, Dr. Spyros Sterodimas, who died shortly after of his wounds.<ref>Most Greek accounts give the casualties as 43 German and 29 ESPO members dead, but these numbers are grossly inflated. Fleischer, p. 17.</ref> The attack was widely publicized and praised by Allied radio stations, and marked the end of the ESPO and of German attempts to recruit Greeks into the [[Wehrmacht]].

The Germans initially blamed EAM for the act, but after the betrayal of the group by [[Greek Gendarmerie|gendarmerie]] officer Polykarpos Dalianis, on 11 November they managed to arrest PEAN's core group, including Perrikos, and on 31 December, a [[court martial]] condemned the arrested to death. Perrikos was executed at [[Kaisariani]] on February 4, Ioulia Bimba was executed by beheading on 26 February 1943 in Vienna,<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.doew.at/cms/download/5kmki/4761_A-B_016_bimba_julia.pdf|title=Death certificate|date=February 1943|work=Documentation Centre of Austrian Resistance|access-date=3 May 2019}}</ref> Galatis' sentence was commuted to a life sentence, while Mytilinaios managed to escape and flee to the [[Middle East]]. Four others, Th. Skouras, Ioannis Katevatis, D. Lois and D. Papadopoulos, although found not guilty, had been executed as a [[reprisal]] act on 7 January.<ref>Fleischer, p. 17.</ref> Dalianis would soon be executed by fighters of the right-wing "[[Omiros (resistance group)|Omiros]]" organisation, which members included later Junta officer [[Stylianos Pattakos]].

===Later history===
[[File:PEAN Doxa Newspaper.jpg|thumb|Two front pages of the Doxa newspaper]]
In September 1943, PEAN, the Athenian wing of [[National Republican Greek League|EDES]] and the Sacred Brigade formed the People's Liberation Union (LAE) an alliance of Venizelist resistance organizations.<ref>Kousouris, p. 66.</ref> The arrest of its leadership was a critical blow to the PEAN, which had never been very large, and severely limited its abilities. It did however carry on, in a purely political role, continuing to publish ''Doxa'', and gradually moving to a more conservative stance, particularly through its rivalry with EAM. Its armed wing was reactivated only from March 1944 onwards, when it carried out a number of sabotage attacks on the Germans.<ref>Fleischer, pp. 16-17.</ref> During the [[Dekemvriana|December events of 1944]], PEAN sided with the right-wing groups, the British and the government of [[George Papandreou (senior)|George Papandreou]] against the forces of [[EAM-ELAS]].

==Notes==
{{reflist}}

==Sources==
* {{cite book |title=Crown and Swastika - Greece of the Occupation and the Resistance, Vol. 2 |author=Hagen Fleischer |location=Athens |date=1995 |publisher=Papazissis Ed. |isbn=960-02-1079-9 | language = Greek }}
* {{cite book |first=Dimitris|last=Kousouris|title=Δίκες τών Δοσίλογων 1944-1949|trans-title=Trials of Collaborationists 1944-1949 |publisher=Polis|language=Greek|location=Athens|year=2015 |isbn=9789604354610 }}
* {{in lang|el}} [http://www.enet.gr/online/online_obj?pid=93&tp=T&id=20570856 "Οι αντιστασιακές οργανώσεις φύτρωναν σαν μανιτάρια"] article in the ''[[Eleftherotypia]]'' newspaper, 8.4.2006
* {{in lang|el}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20071222144909/http://www.sansimera.gr/archive/articles/show.php?id=309&feature=ESPO_blow-up The bombing of the ESPO building] from ''sansimera.gr''
* {{in lang|el}} [https://web.archive.org/web/20061002004155/http://www.e-grammes.gr/article.php?id=2253 The ESPO bombing] from ''e-grammes.gr''

{{Greece during World War II|state=collapsed}}
{{Authority control}}
[[Category:Greek Resistance]]
[[Category:Youth organizations established in 1941]]
[[Category:1941 establishments in Greece]]
[[Category:Athens in World War II]]
[[Category:Anti-fascist organizations]]
[[Category:Anti-communist organizations in Greece]]

Panhellenic Union of Fighting Youths - Revision history

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