A truly devout woman   Her life had begun in tragic circumstances even when she was in her mother’s womb. In the late 1940s her father had died prematurely in his island village in the north east of Greece. He had left behind a young, grieving widow who already had in her care a few older children. As she was growing up, Yasemi may have felt the absence of her father, but she also had the sense that she and her family were being protected by Panagia, the Mother of God. No matter what happened, later in her life, this [...]

Surviving the difficult years   Dimitri was a gentle man who would rarely speak about his early years. He had grown up in north western Greece, in a mountain village near the Albanian border in the 1920s. His father had died when he was a young teenager and being the oldest of four boys, he became the main breadwinner of the family. His mother, Maria, was a generous and compassionate woman, but the harsh conditions of the village life and the absence of a strong male presence took its toll on her. She was often short tempered and took out [...]

Habits That Do Not Go Away   She was a teenager when the Germans had reached her sea-side township of Poulithra in Greece. A fair number of soldiers were stationed in the upper township and they had chosen her family’s home as their base. The officers had set up their command control centre with the radio and other equipment in their sitting room. The family continued to live there as well, as it was a two storey house, and the heavy doors afforded them some sense of security, even though it must have felt like house arrest. Being young, Metaxia [...]

Recalling the sound of hand grenades   A gentle, tall and dignified man, Barba Gianni, recalls his memories of the German occupation during the Second World War in Greece. He remembers the different sounds of hand grenades, and how as children they had been taught to distinguish between the sizzle and the whistling sounds. He remembers how he was fearful of overhead planes, and remembers how he had a very close encounter with death when a bomb exploded near him. Regarding the civil war, he recalls how his father refused to take sides when coerced by a Greek communist fighter [...]

The Enduring Legacy of Faith   Kyria Leah migrated to Australia from her home town of Kozani in the post war era. Like many other women from the north-eastern regions of Greece she had vivid memories of the war years, even though she was a young girl at the time. Most families had suffered tragic losses, especially during the Greek civil war years. Many families had lost a loved one, and in some cases more than one member of the family. In a slow, measured tone, Kyria Leah recalls the two brothers she had lost within the space of one [...]