War Museum, Plaka

Somewhat tucked away on a small single-track road connecting Plaka and Plakes lies Milos’ War Museum. It is situated in the renovated rooms of a protective bunker from the Second World War that extends into Kastro Mountain. In the street, only one inconspicuous sign points to the museum. Of the bunker itself you can of course see only the entrance area, which is below ground level.

The bunker was built by the German Wehrmacht in 1943 and it served as an extension to the adjacent hospital, with which it was connected underground. Two long walkways, today designated as entrance and exit, lead deep into the mountain. The rooms themselves consist of several vaults in which the exhibits are grouped thematically in relation to the history of the island of Milos. In one of the rooms, an exhibition conveys a short historical summary from Antiquity to the time before the Second World War.

In any event, the most important subject dealt with by the War Museum is without doubt the Occupation by the Wehrmacht, which is made tangible by a large number of exhibits: steel helmets, weapons, shells and bullets and also everyday objects from the hospital – when all is said and done, good and bad combined in the smallest space. Finally, the museum does justice to the legacy of a German doctor, Dr. Hans Löber, whose memory is still upheld in a positive sense by the older generation on Milos that remember the war.