The Taking of the Men

In Spring 1944 the Germans instructed all men aged between 18 and 60 to assemble in Olympos to march to Finiki from where they had no idea where they would be taken.

The men of Diafani and Saria walked to Olympos to find the others and walked together to Finiki. Don’t ask me to recall the crying and screaming of the women, tearing their hair out. Nothing like this had ever happened before in the village. We went up to Kymarea and there Michalis Avdelis looked around and composed a mantinada which started “Goodbye high mountains and low river beds. The Germans take all the men of the village today.” They believed that they would never see their homes again.

I remember when they gathered all the men and took us to Finiki to put us in a ship. They left behind only old men and boys. If you could hear in the chapel of Christos the weeping and screaming of the women you would not believe it. Konstantis Kastellorizios had never cried in his life but he did that day. No man remained in the village.

I remember when they took the men – Holy Mother of God!! Every man between the ages of 18 and 60 and all the mules. They took my father, my brother Kostis and our mule. My father showed my mother the small suitcase with the gold objects that he had brought from America. “Sell it for the children so they do not starve” he said, “and if you see it is necessary, sell my house.” You could hear everywhere in Olympos the weeping. Imagine now that all the men leave and nobody knows where they take them! The women, my sister Marinia, and others of the same age went above the chapel of Paliarmotis and took their goats with them. I was with them too and we all cried.