Orthokostá (28 page)

—Wait, you're confusing me. When did they kill your brother?

—On July 29 of 1944.

—In 1944.

—July 29.

—Where were you then?

—The Germans were still here.

—Yes.

—July 29.

—Yes. Where were you?

—I was in Meligoú.

—I see.

—We'd gone on a raid, I was freed in February, on February 2.

—Had they captured you before that?

—Of course, before that. They captured me before that.

—Tell it to me from the beginning. Tell me. It began in 1943. No. It began in 1940. Did you see action in Albania?

—Of course.

—Where did you fight in Albania?

—In all the theaters of operations of the Second Front.

—The Second Front.

—All the way to the lake in Ochrída. To the lake there. That's how far I went.

—And on your retreat?

—On our retreat I was last. The very last one.

—And you came to Kastrí?

—We got ourselves to Corinth. They took my car, outside Thebes. The Germans.

—Were you a driver?

—Yes.

—And you were coming by car?

—I was coming down—and I was bringing some soldiers with me. Stratís Perentés, Yiórghis, Kyriákos Doúmos's boy, Leonídas Méngos, God rest his soul. Polyánthi's son Yiórghis, and Tsarnákos. The Germans made them get out. We started out from Koritsá. I wanted to get my brother, and Vasílis Méghris, and someone named Ilioúpoulos from Kerasítsa. They didn't come with me. I tell them, I'm the last one, the last car. They wouldn't come along, they were blowing up bridges. I picked up a girl from northern Epirus, I took her to Yiánnina. In the front, with me and the captain. The captain
didn't want us to take her. At any rate, the bottom line is that we took her. I arrived in Lidoríki. In Ámfissa. And from Ámfissa I went to Thebes. There the Germans requisitioned my car. Then we went across to Perahóra. In Loutráki. We took the train. It took us an hour and a half to get there. We got off at Eleohóri. From Eleohóri we came to Kastrí. I brought my rifle here from Albania. My automatic rifle.

—What month was it when you arrived in Kastrí?

—April.

—April.

—After the Tsolákoglou capitulation agreement was signed we came here. On April 20, something like that. The twentieth or the twenty-second. I don't remember. In any case, it was April. I arrived in the village. We came back. I'd served about thirty-nine months since I was drafted. And another six or seven in Albania. I arrived in the village in April. I stayed in the village. I didn't stay long. I worked here and there. I was working in the Polychronópoulos warehouse. With fertilizers and whatnot. With Sotíris Tsourapélos.

—Where was the warehouse?

—Just above Kasímos's house. I was working there. One day Níkos Mávros arrives, he takes me downstairs He says, Kapetán Zahariás wants you.

—When was that?

—In '44. No. It was before the Germans even came to Kastrí. But there were Germans all around.

—You mean in '43.

—Yes, about then. In '44 the Germans were there, not in '43.

—In '43.

—Yes but in '44 they came to the village. They set up the blockade.

—Were you here until then?

—I was here.

—When did you join the Battalions?

—I joined in February. No, in March. It was March when the Battalions were formed in Trípolis.

—Yes, I know.

—In March.

—In March of 1944?

—Yes. Níkos Mávros arrives, he takes me with him. Down to Ayía Paraskeví. Kapetán Zahariás was there, with about ten men from Voúrvoura. They were there. He says, I'll knock your block off. But why, Kapetán? What did I do wrong? Will you become a rebel or not? I tell him, I can't join. I can't join the rebels. He says, You'll join, all right, and you'll do it gladly too. Or I'll knock your block off. Well, I tell him. There are eight of us. And two older folks. Ten altogether. I'm working. I'm earning fifty drachmas a day, enough to buy bread. He says, Will you give us bread? I tell him, I have no bread. I have a little wheat at home, I'll give that to you. And they sent some men and took a truckload of wheat from me. Then Níkos Magoúlis takes me down to Paraskeví's taverna. It belonged to Níkos Konstantélos back then. Before they killed him. Takes me down to the cellar. To buy me a drink. He says, I'm paying. Okay, Mr. Níkos, I tell him. Don't call me Mr. Níkos, don't call me that. Call me Comrade. I tell him, What does that mean? He says, We're part of the struggle. I ask him, What struggle, Mr. Níkos?—I called him that again. I can't join the struggle. There are eight children in my family. My father was ill. Back then I was earning sixty drachmas. One thousand eight hundred a month. Driving Galaxýdis's truck.

—Mihális Galaxýdis's truck.

—No, Kyriákos's.

—Mihális's brother Kyriákos.

—Mihális's brother.

—They killed him.

—He was killed in Ayiórghis. We were on a raid and he was killed. We brought him back dead to Trípolis. And that's when Mihális killed Tsígris. Lýras was interrogating him. They heard shots, a German comes running in. What's going on? Nothing, Some bastard got killed, Lýras said. Lýras was from Karakovoúni, an army captain. And that was that, it was over.

—What was Tsígris?

—He was an officer. An officer in ELAS. We had all agreed in
1943, Tsígris, Vazaíos, and me, and we had gone to Pyramída, just above Ellinikó. When we left Mount Taygetus. I'm talking about 1943 now. When we left there.

—Which of you left?

—Me, Petrákos, Tákis Drínis, and that Mýlis fellow from Karátoula.

—Did you go with Vrettákos?

—We went under the command of Colonel Yiannakópoulos. That rat who sold us out.

—I see.

—He finished us. He's the one who finished us off.

—When did you go with Yiannakópoulos?

—In 1943.

—What time of year, what month?

—Summertime. Yiannakópoulos was out in the mountains.

—Wait a minute, one thing at a time. You were working here, and Magoúlis took you downstairs.

—Yes.

—Tell me one thing at a time.

—He took me downstairs. We ate.

—And he told you all those things.

—Yes. And I tell him, I can't. And then I tell him, This meal's on me, Mr. Níkos. He wouldn't let me. He paid for everything. I tell him, I won't go to the mountains, I won't. He tells me, You won't go to the mountains, but you'll help. I say, What help can I be, I'm as good as dead? With a family of ten, I earn sixty drachmas a day. He says, You'll help us out, and he gave me a note to take to Trípolis. To someone named Nikitópoulos. A cobbler, across from Glinós's shop. Glinós was a shoemaker. And just across from there Nikitópoulos was working in a basement. I take him the note. The Italians were in Trípolis. So I find him, he cuts open a watermelon, he puts a pistol in it. He says, Take it. I tell him, Where should I take it, I'll get caught. He says, You'll take it. And he put it in the watermelon. He had more watermelons. I take a few eggs, and I took them to that bastard Bruno. At the outpost. To that Italian. And I got through.

—The Italians had an outpost?

—Yes, at the train station. And they did searches. I gave the eggs to Bruno, I got through with my car. Pavlákos comes over. Did you bring anything from Trípolis? I say, I brought a watermelon. Oh, I see. I brought the pistol that one time. And after that they were constantly on my back. I say, I'm leaving. Then I went to Kyvéri, on foot. I'd taken some fresh green beans with me, to take to Athens. I got on the train. Some fresh green beans for the black market. I went to Leonídas Vrettákos, the cavalry captain's brother. I tell him, Here's what happened. What should we do? So he took us in hand, he gave us a hundred and ten rifles.

—In Athens?

—Yes. Leonídas Vrettákos. Telémahos the cavalry captain's brother. Rifles to bring to Kastrí.

—Yes.

—We brought them. But Márkos didn't listen to me. Where did he want to unload them? Down at Vatomourákos's place, God rest his soul. He says, Let's take them there. I tell him, What are you saying? What are you talking about, Márkos? That's how I talked to him. We had loaded some wheat, loose wheat, and we put in the weapons and brought them here. A hundred and ten rifles.

—You brought them to Kastrí?

—And Márkos wanted to unload them at his cousin's. At Níkos Mávros's place. I tell him, What are you saying, we can't do that. I say, I'll take them. My responsibility. We had him in Ayiliás in a shack. Márkos Ioannítzis. In a shack that belonged to Yiánnis Baskoútos. In Ayiliás. Four or five days later he comes down to Haloúlos's restaurant. He had invited everyone from EAM there. He pulls out his pistol, he says, Long live the revolution against communism. And
bam bam
, he fires two shots there in the restaurant. God rest his soul. Kapetán Foúrias, his first cousin Níkos Mávros, gets up and leaves.

—Had you unloaded the weapons?

—At the warehouse. We laid out the rifles. Put loose wheat on top, and in Trípolis the Italian poked around with the iron rod, but what could he find? It would just hit the floor. We took the weapons,
we handed them out. Vanghélis Mílis took some, we all took some. Well, all right. Nikólas Petrákis, someone named Sakellaríou, a sergeant major from Vytína. A sergeant major. Yiannakópoulos was done for, he signed the pact with ELAS.

—Did you go to Mount Taygetus?

—We did. We went. And after we went there we split up.

—But you're not telling me everything. When you left, when and how you left from here. Did you go with Márkos?

—Márkos fired his pistol: Long live the revolution.

—Yes.

—And then he says, I'm going to meet Látsis, my koumbáros.

—Yes.

—On Mount Parnon. So, when he went up there he confided his plans to them. There were three of them on the road with him. Three rebels escorting him. I don't know the spot where they hit him. Where they slaughtered him. They didn't shoot Márkos. They stabbed him from behind, with a knife. His koumbáros tells him, Keep going till you meet the other men farther down. The three of them escorting him. One of them stayed behind to take a leak, and as they were talking off to the side, they stabbed him. At that time we couldn't get through. We couldn't leave. We wanted to leave. Yiannakópoulos had signed the agreement. Not to attack each other. But we couldn't do any recruiting, none at all. We weren't allowed to. And they gathered us all at Prophítis Ilías, on Mount Taygetus. Just above Goránoi.

—What time of year did you leave from here?

—In the summer, I told you.

—And how long did you stay with Yiannakópoulos?

—Two months. Two and a half.

—Did ELAS attack you after that?

—No. They couldn't attack us. But the English were making drops. They would drop things, and the others would get them. They'd drop arms and automatic weapons, and knapsacks full of sovereigns. The kapetanaíoi pocketed them. We went to catch a caïque in Kalamáta, to leave. Later on we fought the rebels. In Rahoúla. Vrettákos the cavalry captain was there. We split up, to leave. And they got him.

—To leave for where?

—To finally leave the country. Tsirígo,
¹
Crete, Africa. Where could we go? And that son of a bitch the boat captain sinks the caïque and leaves us stranded. We got our bearings. We got ourselves to Kaltezés. From there we came to Vlahokerasiá, and we joined the others. Vazaíos and Tsígris. Vazaíos was in charge at Artemísion. With two of the Kokkiniás brothers. Officers in the Greek Army.

—Where were they?

—In Pyramída. Just above Ellinikó. Not the Ellinikó in Astros. I'm talking about Kefalári.

—In Argos?

—In Argos. High up on the left. Some distance away. It's the border, at Pyramída. So the Kokkiniás brothers were there, both of them. Tsígris was there.

—Tsígris, the one Mihális killed?

—Yes, him. And he says, Clear out or I'll order them to fire.

—Order them to what?

—To fire.

—Tsígris told you that.

—Yes.

—Why?

—Because we broke the agreement. Because we wanted to fight. We went there to see what we could do and he told us to clear out. If you don't clear out, I'll order them to fire. I ask Sakellaríou, What should we do, Státhis? What should we do?

—How many of you were there?

—There were about fifty of us. What do we do now? Yiannakópoulos had agreed that we should work together.

—And he'd sent you there?

—No, we went by ourselves. Mílis stayed behind. With no shoes. They kept him. Then Sakellaríou says. Sakellaríou from Vytína. Whoever wants to can stay with me.

—On Mount Taygetus all this?

—Yes, because they had us surrounded. They would have wiped us all out. They would have taken us prisoner.

—Yiannakópoulos?

—Yiannakópoulos was there. Then he left, I don't know where the devil he went. He went over to ELAS, he sold us out. With the agreement he made. He betrayed us. That's why we had to join the others. In Artemísion. And the others were even worse. He had sent word to them. We arrived, they wouldn't have us. Wouldn't have
us
.

—What time of year was it there?

—It was fall. Fall was just coming on. And we went down on foot, me, Sakellaríou, and four or five others. We would tell people we were butchers. Animal traders. We went down to Stérna, above Argos. We got to Koutsopódi. And there we split up. Poor Sakellaríou stayed behind. I came back here. We all split up.

—And you came to Kastrí?

—I came to Kastrí. I came and all this happened. Let me finish, the Germans were still around, after 1944, the Germans were there.