Jeff—Saturday
As a matter of a fact, I said that precisely five years ago
today! My how time flies on Murder is
Everywhere. So, to bring things up to date...
Yesterday, October 28th, was a Greek National
Holiday. One of two publicly revered
ones to be precise. The other, March 25,
commemorates the day in 1821 that Greece declared its Independence from the
Ottoman Empire and fought until 1832 to obtain it.
But it was yesterday that carried a more relevant lesson for
those of you who might wonder about the effects on that nation of eleven
million having endured more than a half-decade of economic crises exceeding the
Great Depression, compounded by the European Union continuing to use their
nation as a refugee filter trap for hundreds of thousands of families fleeing
horrors not of their making, and a world media quick to disparage the Greek
character with a catchy headline. To those of you who wonder if the Greek spirit
will somehow throw in the towel—I simply say, ‘NO.”
Which is only appropriate since the name of yesterday’s
holiday is “Oxi Day” (pronounced
“O-hee”), meaning “no” in Greek.
And here’s how it came to pass.
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| Thanks to John Pozadzides' blogsite for the photos. |
On the morning of August 15, 1940, the Greek navel vessel Elli was in the harbor of the Cycladic
island of Tinos. It was peacetime and
the light cruiser was anchored to participate in a major Greek Orthodox
holiday, The Dormition of the Theotokos (Assumption of the Virgin Mary). Without warning the Elle was torpedoed and sunk by a submarine, killing nine and
wounding twenty-four. Although fragments
of the torpedo clearly identified its source, the Greek government officially
declared the nationality of the attacking submarine as “unknown.” The Greek government may have been reluctant
to declare the attacker as Italy, and therefore immerse itself in war, but the
people knew who was behind it.
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| Ioannis Metaxis |
Two months later, around dawn on the morning of October 28,
1940, after a party at the German embassy in Athens, the Italian ambassador
approached Greece’s Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas and demanded that Greece
surrender to the Axis powers or face immediate war with Italy. He offered Greece three hours to decide. Italy had seven times the population of
Greece, seven times the troops, ten times the firepower, and total air
superiority.
The Prime Minister’s response was simple: “Oxi.”
And less than two hours later Italian troops stationed in Albania
invaded Greece. Occupation of Greece was
critical to Hitler’s plan for isolating British troops in North Africa. The Italians expected it to be a three-day
war. They learned otherwise.
Oxi became the
battle cry of the Greek people. Within
weeks the Italians were driven back into Albania, and repelled by the Greeks at
every effort to occupy Greece. It became
clear to Hitler that Italy was not up to the task and on April 6, 1941 Germany
invaded Greece, but it took even the Nazis five weeks to succeed. Greek resistance had thrown off Hitler’s
plans to capture Russia before the winter of 1941.
The Greeks were the first people in Europe (outside of Great
Britain) to stand up to the demands of Germany and its allies, but their one
hundred eighty-five days of resistance took a horrific toll on their country:
One million of Greece’s citizens (13% of the population) are
estimated to have died from battle, starvation, resistance, reprisals and
concentration camps.
Greece’s infrastructure, economy and agriculture were
destroyed.
Greece’s gold, works of art, and treasures were plundered.
Civil war followed and many emigrated.
On a purely economic basis, it is estimated that in standing
up to the Axis’ threats Greece was left in financial straits twice as bad as it
finds itself in today… and its societal costs were inestimably worse.
Oh, yes, and on that subject of catchy headlines or phrases
attempting to capture Greece’s national character, let me offer a quote from
someone who understood how the actions of the many, not the failings of a few,
are what matters in any such sort of measure: “Hence we will not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but Heroes fight
like Greeks.” Winston Churchill.
—Jeff
