—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.
—Wait a minute. You came to the village.
—Yes.
—It’s still 1943.
—1943.
—And what did you do when you got to the village?
—What did I do, I we
nt to my car.
—To your car.
—But I was under surveillance. One day they say, Take the car. Mávros’s car, God rest his soul.
—The doctor?
—Yes. Kóstas Tsourapélos and the doctor had a car. A Farkó.2 A truck.
—Mávros the doctor.
—Yes, the doctor.
—Jointly owned?
—Yes. A Farkó. A truck. They come down to Haloúlos’s taverna and give me an order. To go to Aráhova and bring back a dead rebel. I tell Tsourapélos, Kóstas, what are we going to do?
—How would you go to Aráhova? Through Voúrvoura?
—Through Trípolis. Trípolis. They would give us passes.
—Yes.
—Kóstas, what are we going to do? He tells me, I don’t know what we’ll do. I tell him, We’re not going. The way things are now, they’ll burn our car. He says, Let them burn it. They didn’t burn it. We’re going. We went and brought back the dead man. And the next day we abandoned our homes. We got up and left, on foot. Finally in March the Security Battalions came. And on February 2, the Day of the Presentation at the Temple, I was freed.
—From where?
—From Mávri Trýpa. There were 258 prisoners there.
—Hold on. The Battalions were formed in March.
—In March. They were formed in March.
—Okay, you were in the Battalions, you joined the Battalions.
—I joined as soon as they were formed. Before that I was with X. From the day I was freed on February 2. In X with Konstantakópoulos, who they called Tsékeris. He had an office in Kolokotróni Square. With Thémis Iatroú. On the lower side of Kolokotróni Square, where the pharmacy is today. And they gave me a pistol. A pistol with one bullet.
—The men from X?
—Konstantakópoulos or Tsékeris. But I was half-dead from the detention camp.
—When did they arrest your brother?
—They killed him on July 29.
—In 1944.
—Yes.
—They killed him on July 29. When did they arrest him?
—Five days before. Ten. Something like that.
—When did you join the Battalions in Trípolis?
—As soon as they were formed. I went first. In March. On February 2 I was freed from the detention camp. The evening before, when the sun went down, just after that, the Germans surrounded us. They arrested us all.
—When did the rebels take you prisoner?
—In November.
—In ’43.
—In ’44.
—But you said you were freed on February 2, 1944.
—Yes. October, November, December. They took me prisoner in November. I stayed in the detention camp for three months.
—In ’43.
—Listen.
—In ’43. November, December.
—Hang on. ELAS arrested me in November in Parálio, Astros.
—Yes.
—They took me there.
—Tell me one thing: When did they arrest you in Parálio, Astros?
—Three months, two and a half months exactly before February.
—Did they kill your brother before that or later on?
—Later on.
—So they arrested you in 1943.
—They killed Panayótis in 1944.
—In the summer.
—In the summer, on July 29.
—So they arrested you in 1943 then.
—They arrested me—how many months are there before February? In 1944.
—It was after February of 1944. Since it was July when they killed Panayótis.
—It was me in February, it was February when I was freed. On February 2.
—Before they arrested Panayótis.
—Before they arrested Panayótis. They arrested Panayótis instead of me.
—So they arrested you in 1943 then, in Astros.
—It couldn’t be 1943.
—It was ’43. And in February 1944 you were freed. How did they arrest you in Astros?
—How they arrested me?
—Yes.
—It was—I went to that fellow Kateriniós. The father of Níkos the fishmonger.
—Yes.
—Because I came back half-dead, I’d been shut in a cave without food for eight days. When the officers left. When we left Artemísion.
—Yes.
—I went to that cave, back toward Náfplion. I was tired and barefoot. I went to some house to get bread and had a quarrel. They were sleeping. I quarreled with them. And I got on the caïque to leave.
—To go where?
—To Náfplion. Kateriniós, God rest his soul. At any rate, he was with them. Hanging around with them.
—With the men from ELAS?
—Yes, I tell him. I tell Níkos the fishmonger’s father.
—Yes.
—I tell him, Take me to Náfplion. The caïque was at the far pier. And on the other side, at Koutrouyiórghis’s bakeshop, Pepónias and Vamprákos had set up a machine gun.
—I see.
—They fire a burst, and they tell the caïque to turn back. I tell him, Keep going, Kateriniós. Nothing doing. He turned round right there. Then they arrested me and took me to the detention camp. I threw my pistol in the sea. If I’d killed Kateriniós I’d have made it to Náfplion. I knew how to take the caïque there. But it never crossed my mind to kill him. Or to threaten him. I knew how to get the motor started. I’d have taken it there. Taken it to Náfplion. And my troubles would never have started.
—Pepónias and Vamprákos were the ones who arrested you.
—Vamprákos and Pepónias. And Kapetán Mavromantilás.
—Mavromantilás.
—Mihális. He was down there. Mavromantilás, Pepónias, and Vamprákos. And Kapetán Pávlos Bouziánis. From Mánesi. He had a brother-in-law in Trípolis, in Dalaína. Who was hanging around with the Italians. His daughters were. He had stolen lots of money from people. He was a big businessman, general foodstuffs. It was down there that they arrested me. They took me to the school in Meligoú. And in Meligoú they tied me up. Tied my feet—my knees and my ankles. And my hands. Kapetán Pávlos Bouziánis arrives and hits me with the butt of his rifle. I fall down, with half my teeth knocked out. I tell him, Why are you hitting me? He says, You’re a goddamn traitor. I say, Who did I betray? I went after the Italians, I fought them. You’re a traitor. Tell us what officers you were keeping company with. I say, I don’t know any officers, I don’t remember.
—On Mount Taygetus?
—Yes. The officers I kept company with. I don’t remember. You don’t remember? And then they gave it to me. They put the rifle through the ropes on my legs, and they turned my legs with the soles facing up. And they started. Thirty lashes with a metal cable.
—At the school in Meligoú.
—In Meligoú. From there they take me to Loukoú.
—Were there other men there?
—Lots of them. They killed a boy, Pátra’s boy. Pátra of all people. Such a well-respected lady. Cleopatra’s boy. He had a Martelli, a small bouzouki, and he used to play. He’d go begging, have himself a drink. And they killed him.
—In Loukoú?
—Outside Loukoú. They put me in the next day. I slept tied up in ropes. I slept on a board. We didn’t all fit in Loukoú. Nikoláou was there, Dránias was there.
—Yiánnis?
—Yiánnis. That son of a bitch Theóktistos was there. The deacon. He calls me a traitor and spits at me. Does the same to Astéris Papayiánnis’s sister. Ada. I spit on you, you traitoress. Why am I a traitor, Father? I only just now got back from Albania. At any rate. Then they made me dig my grave. In the yard of the monastery. In the corner. I dug it out with a pickax and a shovel.
—With your feet all swollen?
—My feet still swollen. Open and oozing. At any rate. They put me in, they throw me in there alive. Someone comes over.
—Who came over?
—Someone named Kí
liaris. Thodorís Kíliaris. He worked for the Trípolis Electric Company. Down below, at the railroad tracks. Thodorís Kíliaris. And a man from some island. And Vasílis Tóyias from Mesorráhi. They threw me in, they buried me up to my neck. Will you become a rebel? No. Why not, you traitor? And then he hits me with his rifle butt right here, and knocks out the rest of my teeth. My lips were all cut up.
—Kíliaris?
—Tóyias. He hit me with his rifle butt, while I was half-buried. He hit me right here. That was it. They got me out. They gave me a good thrashing. With that metal cable. On my sides, on my kidneys. It was thick. They made it into a club. My skin welted up, they beat me black and blue. Nikoláou and Hasánis, God rest his soul. They tell me, Be patient, Iraklís. Those bastards, they wouldn’t just shoot me. I tell Tóyias, Why don’t you shoot me, why are you torturing me? What have I done to you? I won’t become a rebel. That’s it. They take us, and we go to Karakovoúni.
—From Loukoú.
—From Loukoú. On my knees most of the way. So we went up there. Yiánnis Vasílimis was there. The brother of Kapetán Vasílimis, Kóstas’s brother. And Aristídis. The one who went crazy and died recently. And Lykoúrgos. The father of Yiórghis Vasílimis, who had the stables over in Koúvli, with the calves. Yiánnis’s wife Miliá came there. She brought her husband squash patties. But me, they wouldn’t let me eat.
—What month was that?
—Now it was winter. In February I was freed. Twenty centimeters of snow outside. They had me cutting wood in my bare feet. But no, I couldn’t eat. Keep going, Yiánnis tells me, take my army coat and put it on. Inside his coat he had four patties, squash patties. Vasílimis. I ate them, like medicine. Someone saw me do that, he starts yelling. Hey, you, what were you eating? I say, Nothing. What did you hide in your pocket and eat? I didn’t hide anything. And so a few days later Nikitákis arrives, Dimítris Nikitákis himself, a dairy farmer from Sparta. He brings about sixty prisoners with him. All from Laconía. He brings them, and they join the two detention camps. Ours was under the command of Kapetán Kléarhos Aryiríou. Under his administration.
—Kléarhos was there?
—Of course.
—Now you were all in Orthokostá.
—In Orthokostá. They beat me again there. A lot. Mítsos Nikitákis calls me. The dairy farmer. Who later on had a shop in Ayía Paraskeví, at the main intersection. In Athens. Mítsos’s story is very long. He escaped from a group of men the Germans shot in Monodéndri, and he went and joined the rebels. With two twelve-year-old children and his wife. He had his children with him. But he was a good man. A very good man. And he’s the one that helped us escape from Mávri Trýpa. We were slow getting out, the Germans arrived, we couldn’t get away in time, there was an order to execute us. He got us out.
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