After the Germans left the country,
in the fall of 1944, in October,
the British, under General Scobie, entered Athens
and the first government of National Unity was formed.
There were demonstrations, enthusiasm.
Because we all believed in the liberation,
because we had all given of our best.
We even believed in alliances and the aIllies.
We even believed in alliances and the allies.
to have the People’s Army disbanded,
after the resignation of the communist ministers,
and when we saw the Nazi collaborators,
free and armed again by Scobie,
we felt betrayed.
They told us to take part in the demonstration,
but in fact the people took to the streets spontaneously.
But the British had planned it.
They wanted an armed confrontation.
But we didn't know it.
The people took to the streets carrying flags,
full of emotion, shouting.
The blow on that Sunday in December, took us by surprise.
Many had brought their children.
No one expected it.
The masses filled the squares. It was indescribable!
They were on the roof of the King George Hotel,
and on the pediments of the royal palace.
We could see the barrels of their guns all around us.
We were surrounded by police.
The crowd was shouting.
Suddenly we heard shots!
I was in the middle of the square.
Someone was hit near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
The people dipped a flag in his blood
and raised it high up and began shouting:
FREEDOM! FREEDOM! NO MORE OCCUPATION!
And they kept firing at us from the pediments.
Suddenly, someone else was hit in the square.
We fell to the ground.
Near me a boy with a bugle. He was wounded
but he got up and stood on the sidewalk shouting:
''One more time, I want to cry out, to blow my bugle!
He fell. They took him away. I don't remember.
We regrouped and marched forward.
At the corner further down there was a group of policemen.
We surrounded and disarmed them.
But the others kept firing at us from the roof.
We kept marching.
Britishers and Americans watched indifferently
from the windows of the King George hotel.
We reached Omonia Square.
There they fired at us a second time.
Some were taken to hospital.
Those less badly wounded we took with us on stretchers
made from doors we wrenched from nearby houses.
The victims were buried the next day, December 4th.
We took to the streets again.
On the way back we were attacked again
by the fascists and the militia in Omonia Square.
The only thing I remember:
The crowd down on their faces in the square and the barrels
of the guns protruding from the hotel across the square.
In two days there were 28 dead and more than 200 wounded.
That same night the People’s Army responded
with attacks on police stations. Fighting began.
Barricades.
The battle of Athens lasted 33 days.
''Representatives of the Greek government
after holding a conference at Varkkiza
in order to examine in common ways and means
of ending the civil war
and reconciling the Greek people,
have reached the following joint agreement.
Upon signing the Protocol
the chairman of the Conference made the following statement:
On behalf of the government and the Greek people
I wish to express our gratitude
to the representatives of the British empire
and to General Scobie, chief of the Expeditionary Forces,
who by their presence and sustained interest
in Greek affairs, have given us
is sincerely concerned with the future of Greece.
Long live Great Britain!
Article 1
The government will ensure, according to the constitution
and established democratic principles,
the free expression
of the political convictions of the citizens,
abolishing of all pre-existing, repressive laws.
Article 3
General amnesty is granted to all political offences
committed between December 3 1944 and the present signing.
Members of the People’s Army
who fall to surrender their weapons to the authorities
by March 15, 1945
are excluded from this decree of amnesty.
Upon publication of the present Agreement,
armed resistance groups
and particularly the forces of the People’s Army,
are disbanded.
will be carried out according to the special provisions
of the Protocol drafted by the Technical Committee.
Article 9 Both delegations agree,
to invite the great allied powers
the expression of the genuine will of the people.
Athens, February 12, 1945''
THE INN AT GRAVIAS
in Greek history, was the battle of Gravias.
The Turks were on their way to attack Amfissa.
Then Panourgias and others
occupied the mountain passes near Gravias.
and asked who among them wanted to join him in the dance.
One hundred and eighteen fighters followed him singing.
Once they got to the Inn he shut all the doors and cried:
Brave soldiers! Our country is asking us to do our duty!
What do you want?
Who are you?
What do you want?
People of Greece,
by order of British Imperialism,
on March 31st,
the most disgraceful parody of elections will be staged.
The people are being led to the polls,
under the spectre of terrorism,
and ensure the return of the King,
guarantor of British interests
and of foreign and domestic capitalism.
The Varkiza Agreement was a farce.
Greeks, the only democratic stand
is to stay away from the polls!
Long live the People’s Army!
HAPPY 1946
For years now we've been together
and we are a well-matched pair,
and to spite the wicked world
I'll never stop loving you.
I'll keep on loving you and don't you worry.
And I'll build you a little nest.
And when the dusk embraces you,
we'll pair off like two birds.
If they tell me to leave you
I would rather the sun stop shining!
Let them talk and give me a kiss!
The British cannons and the new decree
have forced the rebels to run like hares.
The red bear has fled to the mountains, oh King.
British cannons don't scare us, or Scobie's new decree.
We've written these letters in our blood.
Freedom not Occupation!
We want to and we'll do it.
We'll bring back the King who'll bring us our freedom!
Yupie ya ya, yuppie yuppie ya...
We don't want the King.
We want the people to rule, power to the people.
Yupie ya ya, yupie yupie ya...
hand in hand with the British and the fascists,
will march on Moscow.
General Scobie's cock is all tied up in knots.
He goes to a chic square,
General Scobie's cock is all tied up in knots.
And if the knots come undone,
what will happen to British policy then, Scobie?
There'll be more knots, General Scobie.
but you'll never succeed in bringing back the King.
The people won't stand for fascism.
They will again raise their heads against British policy.
Come back, come back to your ancient nest, our King!
Your people are asking for you.
Come back!
And when you come
you won't find any Reds here.
The nation's guardians will protect you.
Come back!
Orestes hasn't turned in his weapons.
His group is still up in the mountains.
The war isn't over yet!
We shall not shed a drop of Greek blood,
only the traitorous blood
of rebels and communists,
so that Greece can be saved.
You will have to choose between two camps.
and secret agents working for Moscow.
On the other a movement led by an honest fighter,
a heroic soldier, Marshal Papagos!
When the communists violated the Varkiza agreement
and tried to seize power for the second time, our country
was in mortal danger. Two years of communist rebellion
caused the death of thousands of people.
It was then that we appealed to the Marshal.
With the military and moral backing of the United States
and saved Greece for the second time.
Those communists who were not killed
sought refuge behind the Iron Curtain.
So peace was restored. The Marshal returned home,
having done his duty.
Today he is asking for your vote.
Let the 16th of November 1952 be a day of victory
for the national forces, a victory for the Marshal.
Did you sign?
I was caught towards the end of 1947.
We were taken to Vourla,
an old brothel turned into a prison.
All the inmates were political prisoners.
Then from Vourla to Lavrion
and then to the island across, Makronissos.
The military prison of Athens they called it.
Besides the rebels, there were others...
soldiers, cops, thieves...
Jehovah's witnesses... They searched us.
They took our watches, our pens... all we had.
For some the torture began at once.
The interrogations stopped when you signed
a declaration against the Communist Party.
I was to be tortured in the guardhouse upstairs.
unless you sign the declaration.
I refuse to sign, I said,
even if you cut me to pieces.
Two or three hours later they took me down unharmed.
We didn't beat you, but act like you're limping
so it will look as if we did.
About 8 o’clock they took me to the police station.
The sergeant turned me upside down, like a goat
and beat the daylights out of me.
When he got tired the others started beating and kicking.
I fainted twice.
Then they took us outside.
It was winter, February...
There were other prisoners.
They made us stand ten meters apart from each other.
Someone was standing guard.
In the morning they beat us again.
Then we were taken to carry large rocks from the sea.
We would take them up the hill and down again
for no reason.
One of the tortured prisoners suffered from tuberculosis.
He went up the hill but his chest couldn’t make it.
When he reached the top he started spitting blood.
They took him to the hospital.
They would beat us from 5 to 7 or 8 each evening.
And at night they would keep us spread apart from each other
so that we couldn’t communicate when they went to sleep.
Our feet were so swollen they burst our shoes.
I couldn’t waIk from the beating.
Run, run! How could I run when I was dragging myseIf along.
They tortured me for two weeks.
As each blow fell and I groaned
the others held their breath.
Little by little the others broke down one by one.
There were only 5 or 6 of us left who would not sign.
The put the pressure on us.
One evening in the twilight I saw them coming.
Camp guards and torturers from the other units,
like beasts of prey.
We were outside on the wet ground.
They surrounded us.
This time, I thought, they'll finish us off for good.
I turned to the guy next to me.
going back on the road.
We'd like you with us again, like before.
I'll go over the obstacles.
The intervention of events, sounds, realignments,
the intervention of navies from the raging open sea,
the popular speakers, my breast, the cries...
the factories...
October 1917...
December 1944...
For all this I have chosen to remain in rags
as the French Revolution bore me,
as Mother Spain bore me,
a dark conspirator!
When sometimes I hear with my own ears
strange noises and distant whispers,
when I hear trumpets and songs,
endless speeches, hymns and noises,
when I hear speak of liberty,
of Biblical laws,
of an ordered life,
I always fall silent.
But someday,
someday, I'll open my mouth.
The gardens will fill with waterfalls...
The same dirtyards will become arsenals.
reciting verses, not hymns,
and never submitting to the terrifying power.
Once again they promise a weak freedom!
Come in!
Are you his sister?
We didn't have time to notify you.
As you know he was condemned by a military court.
His sentence has been pending since November 1949.
I'm very sorry.
Good day to you, Tassos.
Let your lovely hair fly
in the mad south wind.
Now that your youth has blossomed,
Let your lovely hair down.
I was looking for you. Aren't you dressed yet?
- Are you nervous? - No.
Orestes!
In the fall of 1939 we returned to Aegion.
We were tired.