1944 was a nightmare year for Thessaloniki: A few months before the withdrawal of the German occupying troops, armed groups of collaborators, known as the Security Battalions, made their loud appearance on the streets of the city, terrorizing – under the pretext of "fighting communism" – its population.

Among these, the group of the "refugee" from Grevena, Antonis Daggoulas, stood out due to its "high performance," a name that indelibly marked the collective memory of the city's residents in the post-war years.

This book sheds light for the first time on the real motives and the bloody activities of the "first dragon of Thessaloniki," confronting the reader with a past dominated by arbitrary and irrational violence.

It is the first time an attempt is made to comprehensively present Daggoulas's actions based on unpublished archival material. The author analyzes the composition of his armed group, as well as the manner in which he came into contact with the German occupying authorities and collaborated with them.

He also describes his relationships with the leaders of the other anti-communist formations in Thessaloniki and his rise as one of the leading figures of armed collaborationism.

However, the most important point studied concerns the crimes committed by him and his men against real or supposed communists. It is no coincidence that the Daggoulas group became associated with the darkest phase of Thessaloniki's occupation history.

As S. Dordanas and V. Kalogrias mention in the foreword of the book, "with his book, Venianakis illuminates the darkest moments of occupied Thessaloniki and releases it from a ghost that haunted it for decades. The phenomenon of evil is now open to interpretation."