Οι σημαντικότητας της Ευρώπης Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Θα προσπαθήσω μετά 50 χρόνια...
για να δημιουργήσω τις θεσμότητες που δημιουργήσω...
και τις κεσοτρέσεις που βρίσκω στην Γερμανία.
Είμαι ο Γερμανικής Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Γερμανικής Γερμανικής στην 1957.
Είμαι ο Γερμανικής Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είχαμε χρόνια για 30 χρόνια στην Ευρώπης Γερμανικής Κορδιάς...
και ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Τώρα είμαι δημιουργός στην Γερμανικής Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
Είμαι ο Προφέστης της Γερμανικής Κορδιάς.
και συγκρατήθηκε με τη Γραμματική Μεδηματική, από την Αριστολή Μεδευασίτη, αριθμή 1944.
Λίγο μετά από τη συγκρατή του, είχε σκέψει από το Τάρμετα Ασφαλίας,
οι άνθρωποι που συγκρατήθηκαν με οι Γερμανικοί Παίρες.
Είχε σκέψει για μια καλή στιγμή επίσης,
επειδή ένας από τους αδερφούς ακούσε το Βραδίου σχέδιο.
Μετά από τη στιγμή, οι Γερμανικοί πρέπει να χρησιμοποιήσουν χρήματα για τους φακτορίες της Γερμανικής,
για να συνεχίσουν την αδερφή, από τη στιγμή και την αδερφή.
Λοιπόν, αυτοί οι αδερφούς σκέψουν μου και ένας από τους αδερφούς,
για να σκέψουν το Βραδίου σχέδιο στην Γερμανική.
Ένας από τους αδερφούς, Βιρν, or Bayron,
was the one who was with him in Germany, in the forced labour camp,
and he died there.
The other siblings survived to relatively old age.
Pericles was the one listening to British radio,
and by a strange twist of fate it was the other two brothers,
Christos, my father, and Byron, who were eventually sent to Germany.
The Germans allowed one brother to stay home with their mother and sister to support the family.
Basically they were turned in for listening to British radio by a Greek woman
who was in love with a security battalion officer,
and as a result of that somehow she ended up betraying friends and neighbours and relatives to the occupiers.
I do not think it was such a major offense to listen to British radio.
Obviously the Germans were very nervous about that because by that time they were losing the war
and they did not want local people to know.
But also perhaps more important they were looking for people who could work in Germany.
They needed hands because basically every German male was being sent to the front to fight,
including some very young people.
So they needed more hands to just work in their factories and that meant they needed forced labourers.
My father ended up being one of them.
He returned to Greece in September 1945,
and here comes an interesting detail.
They were almost executed by the Bulgarians near the border with Greece
because they entered the prohibited zone or something
and they were saved at the last moment by a Soviet guard who was accompanying him throughout the trip.
But it's very ironic that after all that he went through and being so close to freedom
he almost lost his life at the border because of, I would say, misunderstanding.
As a result of his imprisonment in Germany
my father was eventually recognized a resistance fighter by the Greek government.
I believe this happened in 1987.
He also applied in the late 90s for some compensation from Germany
for what he went through for a year in the labour camps
and indeed there was a monetary compensation for him.
The amount they see there is €7600.
Half of that was received after he passed away.
This document is very important for me
because it concerns received by my father on April 6, 1956, of his wristwatch.
They returned his watch 12 years later after they took it away from him.
My father's last days are very interesting.
He remained in good health to the end.
He was still swimming in late October before his heart attack in mid-November 2002.
During his last years he kept talking more and more about his experiences in Germany.
He was talking about those experiences even to people whom he knew minimally.
One story that is very dramatic is the story of another Greek who was well built, very healthy
and for some reason the Germans assigned him to a rather trivial task, namely he had to fix light bulbs.
This was completely trivial, especially in comparison to what most of the other guys were doing.
So this young, strong man was very happy about his good fortune.
However, my father had the amazing insight to warn him about that.
He specifically explained to him that since that job was so light,
it was very easy for him to have a lot of time to think during the day
and think about what was going on around him,
think about all the violence and death due to hunger and exhaustion and reprisals
and being able to think about all that will probably contribute to his demise
and indeed that young man who did not listen to my father's advice to ask for a lighter job,
he ended up dying quickly, incredibly enough.
I must say that this memory has never left him
and I kept hearing about what he went through as he was growing up.
It's very hard to grasp what he went through,
the extreme hunger and exhaustion that he experienced
and also how difficult it was for other people, including me, who never experienced something like this,
to understand his situation.
I will read a little bit of the handwritten version of the letter that my father wrote
to the German Supreme Court judges.
The most horrible judges of the Supreme German Court.
I will try after 50 years to retrieve memories of the torture that I lived through
and the concentration camps in Germany.
I believe there is no writer's pen or movie, not even a documentary,
capable of describing what we, OMERI, forced laborers experienced in the concentration camps of your country.
But it is necessary for me to try, 51 years later, to submit my personal testimony.
On April 23, 1944, the Security Battalions of Douglas,
collaborators of the occupation authorities, arrested me along with my brothers Viron and Pericles.
The reason Pericles was listening to British radio in a French house.
Viron and I were transferred to the Pavlos Melas barracks in Cessaloniki in May.
Around the end of May or beginning of June, we were bored on a commercial train with 50 or 60 of us in each car.
Each car served all purpose, including sleep and toilet.
A young man of 25 at the same time, with a degree in mathematics, full of dreams,
experienced the horror of this trip up to the concentration camp, knowing only.
Upon entering in groups of five, we saw to our right piles of alive, emaciated people.
We understood very well what was lying ahead for us.
Indeed, an order was given through ferocious yells and gun beatings to move ahead without our luggage.
Further down, to strip ourselves naked, still further, to hand in rings, watches and jewelry.
Next, bathing, share-cutting, prison-uniform with all no underwear.
Jacket, a pandalon, a hat, a loaf of bread, a spoon, wooden shoes and a number to each of us.
From that moment on, I turned on into a number.
Omeros 32356.
