Crete 1941/42

1941/42
At the age of 17 WW2 had hit Greece and making its way over to Crete, , the Germans soldiers now occupied the main towns along the coastline including my home town Perivoulia, using it as a base for themselves I had to take my younger step-sister and step-brothers out of the Village to a safe village high in the mountains It took me three days walking them to the village near the town of Spili, stopping at villages along the way, begging for food, people were very helpful. Finally at the village my step-mother’s relatives took charge of the children. I couldn’t go back to Pervioulia it was a dangerous place to be.

I was asked by local villagers to join a group of Partizans to help our allies — my job was to scour the mountains for allies to put them into safe place until they had strengthened & re-grouped ready to move on (I couldn’t ask where) — a small army of German soldiers came into the village I was taken by them back into Perivoulia and along with other girls I was questioned by a Commandant, whilst sat down he thumped his desk shouting at me and accusing me of being a Greek Jew, I shouted back MY NAME IS ELEFTERIA WHICH MEANS LIBERTY & FREEDOM, I AM GREEK AND WANT MY COUNTRY TO BE FREE TO THE GREEKS — with those comments I was shipped out with many others to a Labour(PoW) Camp in Germany……

© Copyright of content contributed to this Archive rests with the author. Find out how you can use this.