And at some point he gives them the slip. He leaps down a cliff, there was a ravine below, he runs in there, he disappears. They started strafing the area with their machine guns. They come over to us. A brother of yours? A cousin, says one of them to me. Nichts, man, I say to him. Nichts cousin of mine. Me from Kastrí, andere from Barbítsa. The other man. I was talking about that rebel. But they didn’t do anything to us. We arrived at Vrésthena. They tell us, We’ll eat, and we’ll let you go. But we won’t be responsible for you any more. We went and pulled up some potatoes, they washed them, they boiled them. They had a goat with them. They cut it up. They gave us that to eat. Then we left. They let us go. We came to a place where the road turned toward Aráhova. We made it to Aráhova. Different headquarters there. There was a major in command, spoke fluent Greek. He started asking us about Kléarhos, about Velissáris. About everyone in the local chapter of Kastrí. In the end he let us go. Get going, he said. But don’t go past the cemetery because there’s a guardhouse there. They might kill you. Go by a different road. We headed out, we followed his advice. We took a much lower path. We left. We arrived at the village. We saw the first houses. Stamatáris’s house. He received us in person. You’re both guilty. That pig. Both guilty. His house was brand new, I had worked on it for him. Door frames, doors. I did the roof too. So we came here. We go and find Vasílis Biniáris. He was also a fugitive, but not in any danger. He had made a deal with Nikólas Petrákos. He had worked it all out, the two of them corresponded and all that. They didn’t touch him. Stavróyiannis left, they took him away. I stayed behind. The Security Battalions came. I wasn’t in hiding. I slept at home. I see Mihális Galaxýdis, in a rage. Those bastards. Hey you, aren’t you a Communist? What could I tell him? Since when was he such a patriot? Treating me like a Communist. They arrest me. He was with some other men. Not local men. They lead me over to a car. Someone named Arménis was in the car. A member of the Battalions. I try to climb in too. Another man’s gun misfires, it kills Arménis. And they forced me to make his coffin. They carried him up to the shop. On a bench. Blood everywhere. I found planks, I made the coffin. They made us spend the night in the school building. And the next day they took us to Trípolis. But they had us outside. Free for the moment to roam about town. We milled around there in Ayíou Vasilíou Square. Then they took us to Áreos Square. And they interrogated us. Kóstas Dránias from the Military Intelligence Office asked me — well, Okay. I say to him, You know me. It’s true that we had been registered in the local organization. Blackmailed into it. Wasn’t Kóstas Braílas in the Organization? That’s enough, Dránias says to me. No further questions. And they took me downstairs. Mihális Galaxýdis took me there. Now deceased. Down to the basement. All this in the Courthouse. They were holding lots of men there. Like Spýros Roúmelis. Roúmelis was known as Selímos. His brother Yiórghis as Alkyviádis. They killed them. They killed them right before our eyes. They stood them in front of us and executed them. Just a short while later. In an instant, on a Sunday. It seems an order had come in to execute twenty-six men. Because twenty-six of Stoúpas’s
2 men had been killed. Somewhere, I don’t know. Yiánnis Kotsoríbas was the guard. Also deceased. And Kóstas Lígdas, another one deceased. Lígdas at the women’s jail. Both of them from Másklina. Everyone from Másklina is actually from Kastrí. And some of them from Ayiasofiá too. They’re from Karátoula, most of them. Both of them from Másklina. Lígdas protected me then. They were ordered to select prisoners from all the wards. A total of twenty-six. To count them up and take them to where the ambush had been carried out. The execution would take place there. And me, I wanted to go outside. Sergeant, sir, I say to him. Lígdas was a sergeant. He asked what my name was. Papavasilíou, I say to him. I didn’t know him back then. No, you’re not coming. I wanted to go outside, I thought they were taking them for chores detail. They took the others down there, and the order was rescinded. Rescinded. They came back later, twenty-six men scared out of their wits. Because they’d realized what was really going on. And they executed them a little later. On Thursday. Wednesday or Thursday. They came in the evening, supposedly to pick out the convicted felons from our midst. They ripped off our insignias. They picked the men they wanted. Well, the rest tomorrow. We’ll take care of them tomorrow. Later they brought someone else who was in the hospital. They let him spend the night. Up until four in the morning they were dragging them outside. They used wire cable to tie them. There was shouting and cursing. Where are you taking us with no interrogation? This from Roúmelis, God rest his soul. They had promised not to hurt anyone, and now they were killing people. And they’d picked out women too. Alexandra Boínis. I heard her. Heard her voice in the night. Cursing. Iraklís came the next day. He treated me well. He hugged me between the bars. Don’t be afraid, he says. Iraklís Polítis. He hugged me and then he says to us, To save yourselves you need to go to Germany. Nothing else you can do. Myself, Panayótis Gagás, and so many others. Panayótis, Eléni’s husband. We left Trípolis before the Feast of the Virgin. But we stopped at various places. We had to. In Corinth we stayed six or seven days. At the Haïdári camp two or three days more. Pótis Lenghéris was in Haïdári too. Pótis Junior. But he didn’t go to Germany. People pulled strings back then too. Neither did Gagás. They, and I don’t remember who else, didn’t go to Germany. It was left for us to make the trip. About twelve hundred of us left Haïdári. There were very few men from Kastrí. And very few from the villages below Kastrí. There was one man from Ayiórghis.3 A man they called “Gaïdoúras,”4 the Donkey. We were taken to Hanau, in the Frankfurt area. At Hanau they picked out two hundred of the less hardy among us for the crematoriums. The Lagerführer said no. We called him Fatso. He was chubby. Let’s find work for them, let’s improve the meals. Because the food was God-awful. The Lagerführer. We were very fortunate. From the death camp we were ordered to go to Opel. They had Russians there, making mud bricks. About two thousand men. They took us to Opel. A large factory but all bombed out. Also close to Frankfurt. Thirteen kilometers away, on the river Main. Quite a story. There were five of us from the Peloponnese. We went to Wiesbaden afterward. Toward the end. We were liberated in February. February of ’45. That’s right. The end of February. The Americans bombed us at Wiesbaden. Bombed the camp. There were large wooden shelters there, huge ones. Two bombs per shelter. They thought they were barracks. Fourteen dead. From Wiesbaden we were taken to Biblis. There were other Greeks there. Then the order came to relocate us. There were 800 of us when we started out, and now there were only 130. Some managed to escape. Mítsos Koutsoyiánnis, Eléni Zoumboúlis’s husband. A good sort. He had given me a lot of help. I don’t know if he’s alive. The Americans found us on the road. Near — I don’t remember the name of the place. I don’t remember. It took me seven months after that to get back. We reached Marseille in August. From Marseilles we went to Naples. The sea was full of mines. We disembarked at Pátras. I met a woman there. Evanghelía. Various state-owned cars arrived to transfer us. Something like the Red Cross. An Englishwoman was in charge, petite and blond. You thought she’d break if you touched her. She drove a monster of a truck. This young thing would get in and rev it up till it trembled. Repatriation service. She tells me, Wait. We’re going to give you clothes, food, and money. She had blue eyes, all teary. They wouldn’t let you say no. Ten days. For ten days I helped that woman. That Evanghelía. She had just given birth. She was married to someone named Taloúmis from Trípolis. I don’t know how she got there. She gave birth to a boy. And that boy is now a civil engineer. Evanghelía, a Cretan. She had a sister, she said she’d like to make me her brother-in-law. She showed me photos. We stayed in Corinth for a day, and that’s when she told me this. I tell her, Let’s get back to our homes first. Let’s see if we find anyone there. Well, anyway. We got out in Corinth to wait for some other cars to come. There I see Iríni Koutsoúmbis and her sister. We were koumbároi.5 Sávvas, they say to me, Sávvas. They saw the woman with the baby. Is this baby yours? I told them the whole story. Taloúmis, they both say at once. Daphne runs off and brings someone. It was Taloúmis’s brother. He gave us cigarettes, he asks us if we need anything. He worked in Corinth. Finally we left. Or did we leave Evanghelía there? I don’t remember. I think we left her there. I got to the village on September 14. I’ll always remember that day. Réppas brought me to Kastrí from Trípolis. His job was transportation. I reached in my pocket to pay him. He says, What are you talking about, Sávvas? Me take money from you?