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In 1938 he was elected Archbishop of [[Athens]]. John Metaxas, dictator of Greece at the time, objected to Damaskinos and forced the cancellation of his election, and the appointment of Metropolitan [[Chrysanthos (Philippidis) of Athens|Chrysanthos]] to the post. After the 1941 German invasion of Greece and the fall of the Greek government, the metropolitans who had elected Damaskinos seized the opportunity to eject Chrysanthos from the throne (with German agreement, as the latter had refused to be present at the oath-taking ceremony of the quisling Prime Minister Georgios Tsolakoglu), and Damaskinos was reinstalled.
==Nazi Occupationoccupation==
Damaskinos worked very hard to live up to his position during those difficult years. He frequently clashed with the German authorities and the quisling government. In 1943, the Germans began the persecution of the Jews of Greece, and their deportations to Nazi concentration camps. Damaskinos formally protested the actions of the occupational authorities.
According to the '''The International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation''' the appeal of Damaskinos and his fellow Greeks is unique as no document similar to the protest against the Nazis during World War II has come to light in any other European country.
The letter in part reads:
