June
2, 2010
To the Mayor of Syvritos, Mr. Petrakakis
Notification to: Village of Patsos
Notification to: Village of Pantanassa
On May 21, 2010, after the end of the religious Ceremony in the chapel of
Saints Constantine and Helen in the place Plates Patsos, we were invited to the
unveiling of a marble plaque in the nearby location of Harakas of Patsos where
in May 1944 the German General Kreipe, the chief of the kidnappers and Major of
the British army Patrick Leigh Fermor, the deputy chief of the kidnappers
captain of the British army Stanley Moss and the Cretans guerillas who
completed the abduction team were hidden and hosted .
It was supposedly a solemn ceremony to commemorate a distinguished /
extraordinary event that honored, and will honor forever, Cretans.
Unfortunately, the ceremony and the marble inscription were not, in my opinion,
the appropriate ones.
Now that I still can, I am writing "my own truth" about what I know
from first hand and about what I experienced personally.
MAY 1944
Still dawn and my brother Iorgi (George E. Harokopos) returns to our home in
Patsos after spending a couple of days in Gerakari for some special
"job" he had to accomplish there.
At first he says he brought a team of strangers in Harakas, and he asks us to
boil some milk to feed them.
But as he speaks he trembles.
I ask him what is wrong.
At last he tells us that: "it is the German General."
Still morning and my father leaves for Harakas with the milk.
We had a little of coarse barley flour at home. We had also some bread.
I make pies with cheese.
I slaughter a rooster and boil it.
Late in the morning I go to Harakas with the food.
The mood in Harakas is cheerful.
The Cretan guerillas / kidnappers tease each other about who is the one who
lacks brain and “should eat the head of the rooster to get cocks’ wisdom”.
They treat the German General, who is permanently somber, with respect; however
they have decided to "eliminate" him in case things get out of
control.
Leigh Fermor did not come with the rest of the team because he had to
communicate by a wireless set with the headquarters in Egypt for the next steps
of the escape.
Late in the afternoon I return to our home in the village.
Next day, late morning, I get back to Harakas with what food we had at home.
He has now come and the chief of the kidnappers Patrick Leigh Fermor bringing,
apparently, good news.
Later, in the Harakas rock comes Eleftherios (Lefteris) G. Harokopos, brother
of my father, who has access to the mule of Kourkoulos, necessary for the
transportation of General. Along with Lefteris comes Dimitris St. Pattakos, the
big brother of George Pattakos.
They have brought a young kid / goat and Dimitris bakes it into the sheepfold.
All the rest sit outside.
Late in the noon we all sit together with the German General, and eat.
The German General impressed by the treatment, despite our obvious poverty,
asks Leigh Fermor why the Cretans like the British and hate the Germans.
”Eleftheria, explain to the General " asks me Leigh Fermor (who during the
occupation was, more or less, like a relative of ours).
"Because the Germans slaved us, while British help us to liberate", I
answer to the German General, who said nothing more.
Late in the afternoon the team is preparing to
leave.
There is still light.
My uncle Lefteris approaches and says to me: "Elefteria, come; there is
something Leigh Fermor wants to tell you”.
Leigh Fermor holds in his hands a small package folded with paper.
He seems uncomfortable.
He folds the paper around the package, he unfolds the paper, he folds the paper
cover again.
Finally he says to me:
“Eleftheria in a short while we are leaving.
And because we are going to take with us your brother Iorgi; and because . . .;
and because . . .; and because . . . I want you to accept this small present
showing our gratitude for what you have done for us”
"My God!" I answer, "My God! Money? Money Mr.Michalis?"
this was the name we used for Leigh Fermor, “But what we do, we do it for our
country Greece. And you are going to take with you my brother Iorgi. NO.
NEVER.”
Leigh Fermor does not give in.
In his second attempt, he has ally my uncle Lefteris Harokopos who is telling
me, in a tone that takes no objection, "Eleftheria do accept it" as
giving orders to a soldier of him.
"NO. There is no case to accept. NEVER" I answer, and my eyes have
tears because I have to disobey my uncle.
Leigh Fermor understands, he is embarrassed and
he apologizes.
He repeats he is sorry and puts the money in his pocket.
All this is done in the presence of the German General.
SEPARATION
Then it comes the moment of goodbyes.
My big brother will go with them.
It is very likely we will not see each other again.
We are the first to leave for Patsos, shortly after they are leaving the others
with the German, with some of the team following a different pathway not to
trigger suspicions.
For the rider German General it is agreed to say, to anyone who asks, that he
is an American.
LATER
A couple of hours later, dark, my father returns to our home in Patsos.
At a moment I hear him saying: "Leigh Fermor put something here” and pulls
out of his pocket a paper small pack, he unfolds it and reads:
"Mr. Harokopos, because we take with us Iorgi, because you will pass
through several difficulties, because I asked Elefteria to take this small gift
but she refused, because. . . because. . . please do accept it".
As soon as I saw the paper and the three gold coins, I got furious.
I insulted my father.
I humiliated him.
"You, foolish”, I said, “you sold your son for three pounds?"
"Three pounds for your son?"
"Three pounds for your country?"
Although he, and his two brothers, had done so much for their country, that he
would never deserve such a criticism:
HEROES
Efthimios G. Harokopos gave battles against the Turks in Crete (still
teenager, he killed a Turk-Cretan who was a grave problem for the Christians in
the region).
Without a second thought he responded to the call of Venizelos and he returned
from America (wherein he had gone as immigrant) to fight as a volunteer next to
the hero Klidi (when he was killed in the battle, he transferred the body of
his friend and chief at St, Elias church of Metsovo wherein the funeral
ceremony took place).
(correction: after his friend
and chief Klidis was killed in the battle, his friend Makris took over the
leadership of the volunteers team; a few days later Makris was killed in the
battle, too; the dead body of Makris was the one that was transferred by
Efthimios G. Harokopos to St. Elias church in Metsovo and was buried in honor).
He took part in the Battle of Crete in 1941.
He grabbed by the invading paratroopers, and delivered to the mobile hospital
of Rethymno, a box with German medical supplies which was, as the chief doctor
Daskalakis explained to him, priceless (many lives would be saved with this)
and more important than the elimination of a hundred of German paratroopers.
During the occupation, his house was the transit center in Patsos. Badouvas
with his guerillas stopped there when passing from the area. Groups of Greek
fighters, left and right ones, were always welcome. Over 60 Englishmen,
Australians and New Zealanders soldiers gradually pass from his home and were
seriously supported in their attempt to escape to the Middle East.
His brother Francis (Fragias G. Harokopos) serving as a soldier in the
liberation wars of Greece was injured so bad - the bullet entered the mouth and
came out of the neck - that he was considered dead and stayed for several hours
in the mortuary until to give signs he was alive, and at the battle of Crete in
1941 he was again in the forefront.
His other brother, Eleftherios G. Harokopos, decorated very young for
his contribution to the Greek Army, and he was injured badly: the fragments of
the bullet remained forever next to his heart after doctors consider more risky
to remove them.
However, at the bottom line Patrick Leigh
Fermor did achieve to do what he wanted to be done.
INVITATION TO GO TO EGYPT
Two weeks after (the correct is: three months later) the departure of
the kidnappers, the chief of the British in Crete Major Tom (or Mr Yiannis as
we called him, with whom we were like relatives), came to our home with his
Cretan assistant.
I gave him a blanket and sent him some 30 meters away from the house, in the
shade of a laurel, to rest. A friend and relative of ours, who was good in
repairing shoes, took the shoes of Tom to repair. I baked a rooster with
potatoes. He ate.
Later my father came. He began the lament for the villages burned by the Germans
and for Crete that is close to perish. "Don’t worry, Mr. Harokopos"
said Tom. "How many villages are burned by the Germans? Ten? Crete has
1,460 villages and there is no way to perish."
It was then that I first heard how many villages Crete has, and this from an
Englishman Professor of Oxford University.
Tom before leaving asked me if I wanted to
follow him in Egypt. I refused. I replied that, as he knew, my brother was in
Egypt, so I should not leave our home, too.
BEFORE AND AFTER Kreipe
The case of Kreipe was not the exception.
With such and similar it passed the German occupation.
With a lot of work in the fields and in the animals (the men of the house had
to be absent for long periods).
With care and support of the allies and of the rebels.
With misleading the German invaders.
With desperation, tears and prays.
AFTER LIBERATION
After liberation, the inauguration of the hereon in Gerakari in honor of the
executed Gerakarians (we knew all of them, many of them were relatives from the
side of my mother), I was put to deposit a wreath and recite verses:
"To you, my honored brothers,
who fought with us during the years of slavery,
I deposit this wreath in honor and gratitude. "
After the liberation, at the big celebration in
Arkadi, we, my father and I, were in the official table.
To the minister Papadogiannis who asked, I replied that "if Patsos was not
burned by the Germans, it was because Patsos had not traitors".
After the liberation, arriving with the minister Kefalogiannis and with
Badouvas from Heraklion to Rethymno, at the café of the chief Minas
where the chief of the resistance of Rethymno had gathered, captain Manolis
Badouvas pointing at me shouted to them: "this girl did for the resistance
more than what all of you altogether”.
Yet when I needed a certificate from my relative "that I was in the
resistance", he denied it.
The certificate was signed with pleasure by Captain Manolis Badouvas, the hero,
the one and only who’s name alone was enough for the Germans to start trembling.
The respect and love he had for me, started when (quote from Captain Manolis
Badouvas memoirs):
We arrived in Patsos.
In Patsos they brought us food in the mountains.
A girl came, Lefteria Harokopou, some fourteen years old.
Tom (the British) watching the willingness of the people of this region said to
the girl:
"You Greeks are very good, but you have no culture."
The girl answered:
"When we, the Greeks, were building the Parthenon, you were on the trees
and live in nests like the birds. The culture you say you have is stolen from
us. The root of culture is from Greece.
I congratulated her and said her:
"After liberation, when you’ll get married, I want to be the best
man”
Indeed Captain Manolis Badouvas was the best
man in my marriage in 1951.
MAID AND LADY
In Crete we have a saying: a good lady is also a good maid.
Being a twenty-two years old Cretan girl, I prepared, baked, carry, nursed the
kidnappers team the best way with the existing means. As a good maid.
Then, as a good lady, me, a twenty-two years old Cretan girl, stood up and did
what I was supposed to do.
I was not afraid by the German General, I did not obey my uncle (as I had to
according the ethics of Crete those days), nor I obeyed the kidnappers chief.
And why to give in?
We were the hosts, we were hiding them, we were feeding them, along with them
we were risking.
EVERYONE IN HIS POSITION
Right there, in the foot of the rock of Harakas wherein you fixed the marble
plate, I put, the right moment, the German and the British in their position:
Why do we not like the Germans and like the British!
Do the conquerors ask such nonsense?
Also Patrick Leigh Fermor, refusing to accept his payment.
Because what we did was not for the British, it
was for our own country, for Greece.
And, after 66 years, I am still proud that thanks to a thin, arrogant girl, the
United Kingdom and the Germany bowed that day to the slaved / occupied Greece.
However these facts, which should inspire the Greek youngsters, were
manipulated and hidden. And that I was the only woman, those two days, in
Harakas.
OTHERS IN THE MARBLE AND OTHERS NOWHERE
At the ceremony in Harakas, 21/5/2010, wherein you were the chief officer, two
names were engraved on a marble slab.
Mine not in a paper.
And I should not complain, the organizers of the ceremony strongly protested,
because "somehow I was included in the paper praise for the family of
Efthimios G. Harokopos" (not accepted by me).
I wish them being well.
CLARIFICATION
Pattakogiorgis (George S. Pattakos) and I are first cousins (his
mother and my father were sister and brother), peers and friends. For six years
we shared the same bench in the school of Patsos.
But injustice is injustice.
And the truth is over friendships and affinities.
BY COINCIDENCE
In Crete I went not for the ceremony, nor I would go even if I were invited.
For fifteen years I go there, either I can or
not, every May on St. Constantine anniversary, to clean and operate with the
other residents of Patsos the chapel.
The unveiling happened to be the day I am there every year.
And since I was invited and I came to the ceremony, my duty was to tell the
unjust.
If the ceremony was done five days ago, seeing the marble plate "after the
fact" I would say something like “what could you expect from them?"
and the thing would end there.
But it happened to be there, and the right thing is the marble slab, that will
stand there after we all be dead, to “say” the pure truth.
THE HONORED
I do not underestimate what they have done the "honored" ones.
It is a fact that the first named in the inscription, my brother Iorgi, took in
very difficult times the heavy responsibility to hide the kidnappers with the
General in the Harakas of Patsos and then to lead them to the southern Crete.
The kidnappers, like he requested, took him (Iorgi) with them to Egypt where he
served in the Sacred Band.
It is also a fact that the second named in the inscription, my cousin George
Pattakos, assisted the first and indeed harnessed for two days the mule
carrying the General and then returned it to its owner.
But it is not right, because some like so, to underestimate and neglect the
contribution of the rest, for the sake of above two.
The story was “written” then. It cannot be rewritten.
Instead of the generalities heard from the speakers of the ceremony, they
should have told the relevant facts, “dry”: he did this, the other did that,
things were done this way. . .
As for the risk, the truth is that the same risk taken by the two honored ones,
it was taken also by the residents of Patsos without exception: because in case
of failure or betrayal the Germans would not left in Patsos not even the smell
of a Patsos resident, nor a stone over a stone.
EPILOGUE
As he writes and rewrites in the memoirs of Captain Badouvas:
"If you didn’t pour your blood for your homeland, you did nothing
important".
Of the many trivial things made then in Harakas, I think that what
distinguishes is the courage, the integrity and the wisdom showed by a young
Cretan girl among so many experienced fighters and "heroes."
WHAT SHOULD BE DONE
In a place like Crete wherein there are so many heroes who spilled their blood
for Greece, what else from extravagance and waste of the measure is to be
written names of living persons on marble slabs?
And if they have done deeds like Kolokotronis’ and Karaiskaki’s, agreed.
But there, not a drop of blood was spilled.
There, not a single gunshot was heard.
There, they was not opened a nose to bleed.
The ceremony was wrong as it was, but it was done and is gone now.
But the marble slab that stands there is wrong and has to be corrected.
Look at it as it is now.
Remove the names at its bottom and look at it again.
You will see that this way should be made in the first place.
This way it would calm down the anger I saw in many residents of Patsos who
refused to attend the ceremony.
Thank you for listening to me
Eleftheria widow of Constantine Pattakos,
daughter of Efthimios G. Harokopos