Archbishop Damaskinos Papandreou was the Greek Orthordox Archbishop of Athens and all of Greece from 1941 until his death in 1949. Thus he was the religious leader of most Greeks during World War II and the Nazi occupation.
Unlike Pope Pius of the Roman Catholic Church, Archbishop Papandreou stood up to the Nazi's in a clear and unambiguous fashion. He wrote and published a letter demanding equal treatment for the Jews who were being rounded up by the Nazi's and sent to camps. He stood up to the criminal actions of the government and was willing to pay the price. The German Commander Jurgen Stroop threatened to put him in front of a firing squad. The Archbishop famously told him:"According to the traditions of the Greek Orthodox Church, our prelates are hanged, not shot. Please respect our traditions!"
The Archbishop also quietly told his priests to issue baptismal certificates to Jews who were under suspicion of being Jews by the Nazis so they would not be sent to camps. He stood up in the face of evil without fear or favor and did the right thing.
