BROTHERHOOD UNITY - Part 09

“To the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Greece (CPG) There are residents from various villages in the free Vicho territory who, when the battles for Vicho begin, will probably do a lot of damage behind the DAG (Democratic Army of Greece) lines. According to the information we collected and from the assessments made by our services, we expect they will inflict major damage to our cause and such activities will also encourage others to do the same. During the course of the battles they will probably provide shelter to enemy agents (the Monarcho-Fascists and Tito) who will penetrate our background in order to gather information, carry out sabotage activities and provide targets for enemy air force and artillery attacks. These people will try to influence the population and through various hostile slogans, break its unity and bond ... These people will flee to the enemy (to the Monarcho-Fascists or to Tito) and provide them with information about DAG’s combat positions, bunker locations and minefield sites. They will encourage our fighters to desert DAG and flee to the monarcho-Fascists or to Tito. Some villagers from this region have been caught and jailed but have not gone before a military court because, through the party line, we received orders to re-educate them by pointing out the damage that they have caused. We did not punish them with harsh penalties. We cannot decide every case separately so we often have to apply collective punishment such as hard labour to be served by digging tunnels for the storage of weapons. When our friends from the courts were looking for statements or for evidence, we were able to provide it, but with our informants fleeing to the enemy, our evidence disappeared. Our military courts will not put cases before the people without evidence. So we are limited in this regard and we can only monitor people, assess their liability and provide advice. As such we prefer to apply penalties rather than go to trial in military courts. From our information we can conclude that when the enemy offensive begins, these people will cause great damage to our movement and to our defense. Therefore we propose and seek approval to collect all those people (lists to be provided) and send them to a secure area behind the scenes where, as their punishment, they will be put to work, which will also limit their opportunity to flee to our enemy Tito. Then, anyone caught attempting to escape can be executed. We already have a list of our people who will be placed among them to collect information on them. This way we will remove the danger that threatens us. In place of holding these people in isolation, which would be utterly useless, we propose that we use them as a work force which is now lacking in DAG. We submit this proposal because all these elements will be activated the moment the military operations in Vicho are launched. We also have another proposal. The region around the border sector, currently defended by a section of the people's militia located in German, is okay in terms of forces available to it (35 people), but we propose that we further secure the border by other means, such as barbed wire, bells, empty meat cans, mines and other items. Given the urgency of the situation, we anxiously await your response.” Zahariadis read the letter from Bureau A2 carefully and called a meeting with Bardzotas, Vlandas and Gusias for noon, to take place in the cave above the village Vineni. The Politburo was unanimous in its assessment that the situation was serious and required serious measures to be undertaken. The same day a letter was sealed in an envelope and sent to Vineni. Written in the envelope margins in great big red letters was: “You have our approval and consent, however we do not approve that you run the entire operation alone. Continue to monitor the situation and immediately contact all members of the Central Council of NOF (Peoples’ Liberation Front) and ask them to report to DAG General Headquarters.”

It took about two days to locate all the NOF members and for them to arrive at the designated place. They met in the same cave, during the night of the second day, where Gusias informed them as follows: “Comrades, by comrade Zahariadis’s orders, I asked you to come here so that I can convey to you the decision reached by our Politburo and by our General Headquarters. As you well know soon we will begin the Vicho campaign. I must insist that you accept what I have to say as well-intentioned criticism, for as long as the preparations for defense are ongoing, you, Comrade Vera, and when I say you I think of the entire NOF and AFZH (Women’s Anti-Fascist Front) leadership. You have somewhat slowed down in doing your duty, your long visits to the villages in Prespa have become comfortable, at least this is what we are told by the field agents, your fighting spirit and revolutionary enthusiasm have slackened... I have heard, and I think the Chiefs of Staff at General Headquarters have heard, rumours that you rarely visit the Koreshtanski villages, they say that you rarely pass by there and some even say that you don’t go there at all. I want to inform you that we here in the Politburo and in General Headquarters have seriously considered how to protect the population in Koreshtata and other Kostur and Lerin Region villages. Let us not forget that this population, as comrade Zahariadis has said, is full of heroism and selflessness and has given its all to the struggle, which calls for admiration and because of that our enemy will strike there first and these people will become the first casualties of the offensive. That is why they deserve to be protected. We owe it to them. To be protected. Exactly for that reason, comrades, we at the Politburo and at General Headquarters have decided that you, the leaders of NOF and AFZH, together with all your activists should go to the villages, to every house and speak to every man and woman, speak with the old people, with everyone who is still left there and persuade them to leave their villages. Tell them to go behind the front line. We here at the Central Committee and at the General Headquarters assessed the situation and understand the dangers threatening the villagers, that is why we decided to undertake such a task. Of course the move will be assisted with the help of the National Militia because the people deserve to be safe while being relocated. We could do the move with the help of our army, but the army is needed elsewhere. When the enemy launches its offensive, it will not only attack DAG combat positions, it will also attack the villages and the houses, it will attack every house, and most of all it will attack the houses and people who took our side. The enemy will direct its retaliation on them, on the people who took our side and will commit unprecedented crimes against them. Many crimes will be committed by the enemy infantry, police and by the evil paramilitary groups. They will leave no stone unturned, every house will be burned down and anyone caught will be tortured and killed. We have reliable information regarding enemy intentions and their plans for revenge. That is precisely why we need to protect the population. Our first step will be to draw a line behind the front. You must explain this to them very carefully, in a convincing way. In fact you must tell them that the ‘worst’ awaits them if they stay in their villages and in their houses. You should also explain to them that they should leave nothing for the enemy. In other words, they should take everything with them, livestock, oxen, sheep, goats and even their donkeys to carry all the valuable things that they take with them. They should take as much furnishings and food as they can carry, especially food to last them about ten days because that’s how long it would take for us to eject the enemy out of Vicho. Of course, they should also bring all items that carry high value such as money, gold, silver, cheques... Now the villages we plan to evacuate are Smrdesh, Vmbel, Breznitsa, Rula, Trnaa, Oshchima and Zhelevo.

When we eject the enemy out of Vicho, then all will be returned to their liberated villages... Your job is to activate the entire village apparatus. In other words the People’s Village Councils and where there is resistance you should personally participate in clarifying matters…” concluded Gusias. Some time later. Horse hooves pounding on the village cobblestone road were heard late in the evening. Vane opened his window slightly, peeked outside with one eye and saw two people on horseback standing outside in his yard. Silently he closed the curtain and went to turn down the flame on the kerosene lamp which, at the time, was emitting a trembling pale, white light. He again returned to the window. The riders now stood in front of his thick oak door, nailed with several rows of thick nails. Vane perked up his ears but failed to capture anything from the quiet conversation. Suddenly there was a knock on the oak door and a quiet muffled voice was heard calling out: “Vane! Vane!” It was a woman’s voice, a familiar voice. Vane quickly put on his woolen pajamas and while going down the stairs, with both hands, slipped his long colourful belt around his waist. “Vane!” The same voice was heard calling, mixed with the noise of moving horse hooves. “I am coming, I am coming…” Vane was heard saying as he rushed to the door, unlocked it and flung both sides of the door wide open. “Come in!” he whispered. “Hello Vane. Are you well? How is your wife?” whispered Vera. “Thank God, so far I am well Vera. My wife is okay too but has problems with her hip. She can’t stand up straight and can’t move that well. She was injured while carrying logs. Come in, tie your horses and come into the house… And you… if I may ask… what are you doing out here this late at night? Does this visit have something to do with your work or is it a casual visit?” asked Vane. “It’s about work, Vane, about work and it’s a big job,” replied Vera. “Is it about that?” Vane pointed at the mountains with his chin. “If I have to go, I swear on my mother’s name, God bless her soul, I will not be able to go. I have pain in my waist and in my neck and my wife, unfortunately, is not well…” said Vane. “It’s not about sending you to the mountains, Vane…” replied Vera. “If it’s not about that then please go ahead, straight up the stairs…” said Vane. Menka, holding her sore hip with one hand, came to the top of the stairs and greeted the guests pointing the way to the balcony. “Please come in, come in, good to see you. It’s dark out there, you can’t see. Wait while I get a lamp,” said Menka. “No need Menka, we won’t be here for long. We will just say hello and we will go,” replied Vera. “It’s okay, it’s okay… Please come in…” insisted Vane. “Vane,” Vera began to explain, “we are here on orders from the highest level of authority. We know that you, Vane, that you are the wisest and most respected person in the village. If you get going so will the others, they will follow you and you will save them from anything bad happening to them. Do you remember how it was when the wounded needed to be transported from Lerin? You went first and then the entire village followed. Now again you will have to do the same, you will have to go first…” “Go where?” asked Vane. Vera repeated what she was told by the higher authorities, explaining everything convincingly and persuasively. Vane turned his head, a reflection of doubt flooded his eyes and with every quiver in his face he showed that he had no confidence in the plan. “No, things are not what they seem…” said Vane thoughtfully. “No, it can’t be done that way…” added Menka. “What, now the both of you are going against me? No, no and only no? Don’t you know how to say anything else? You all have been ordered to go and you will go!” said Vera in a loud voice. Vane straightened himself and furrowing his eyebrows with every word, said: “Vera, many times you have said the words, ‘You are going against me,’ words which we do not understand. I can see it in your eyes that these are bad words.

And don’t yell at me in my own house!” Vane paused for a moment and continued: “We will go, of course we will go… But know that this to me looks like an expulsion… If that is true then may God be your judge and from us you will be forever cursed… Why not, of course we will go… Last night the highway was full of people and goods… Now it’s our turn… Of course we will go… What should we take and what should we leave? All the bad luck that has befallen our house… The items in this house have been building from the time of our great grandfather, from our grandfather, from our father and now from us. We used to say ‘our house is full and may we leave it full to our children’. Is there ever a full house without children? A house is empty without children… What can you take and what can you leave? Everything is precious. Everything was achieved through the sweat of our ancestors and on their sweat we added our sweat… What to take and what to leave?” asked Vane. “Just take the most valuable things,” added Vera. “The land,” said Vane, “the land is the most valuable thing. Everything we have comes from the land. The land feeds us. How can we take our land, how can we bring it with us? If I was in good health and in good shape I would have no problem supporting my family and building a house in foreign lands. But abandon our land? We would have to be mad to do that! Can one abandon their land that easily? Okay then… We will do what we can… Of course, yes, of course we will go…” said Vane in a confused tone of voice. “Okay then… You need to go first, before the others,” said Vera and while leaving, added: “We will see you there…” Vane did not reply. The People’s Village Council President was waiting outside. He leaned towards Vera’s ear and said, “There is great resistance; the villagers don’t want to leave.” “What do you mean the villagers don’t want to leave? Did you explain everything to them?” asked Vera. “I couldn’t have explained it any better…” replied the President. “Take me to the houses of the people who did not want to go!” ordered Vera. A little while later. “All of them, to the last one,” yelled Vera, “will be coming and will be robbing you…” “I have no reason to leave. I don’t have anyone on your side. I am all alone. My house is empty, you took everything. What will they take from an empty house? The stones from my yard?” replied an old woman. “They will take you, they will take you and kill you, they will skin you alive and toss your body to the dogs… They will be dropping bombs, barrels of fire, flames and coals, they will burn everything. Last year we barely saved the villagers from the other side of Mali-Madi. There they were dropping flames and fire from the sky out of airplanes. Everything burned, the trees, the soil, even the rocks were exploding from the heat. We barely saved the people and moved them into the free territory with great difficulty,” explained Vera. “Did they return to their homes after that?” a woman asked. “Who?” asked Vera. “The people you saved,” replied the woman. “Oh, them? There is nothing for them to return to… The enemy burned their houses to the ground, there was not even a stone left standing…” explained Vera. “These women standing here and I are not leaving,” said the woman. “Ladies!” yelled out Vera “We are not here to expel you, we are here to evacuate you…” “Even if it is for evacuation… We are not going. We will stay home behind locked doors and we will not let anyone in… We will wait for our husbands to return…” said the woman. “You are going to wait for them to return from where?” inquired Vera. “From the prisons and from the Islands,” said the woman. “Do you truly believe they will release them?” asked Vera. “Yes one day they will release them,” said the woman. “Where is your husband?” asked Vera. “Exiled on the island of Aegina,” replied the woman. “And yours?” asked Vera pointing to the next woman. “At Yura Island…” replied the second woman. “And yours?” asked Vera pointing to the following woman.

“Mine is at Ai Strati,” replied the third woman. “You poor women… They will take you and torture you because your husbands are in prison on the islands. They will torture you the most, the soldiers will rape you and after that they will parade you naked and pass you on to others. Do you want that? And… dirtied like that what good would you be to your husbands? Will they then want to look at you when… when they return home alive and well? Don’t delay, take the most valuable things and when you are told to leave, be among the first to go,” insisted Vera. A while later. “Your People’s Village Council President was right when he told you what awaits you if you don’t leave. Did he explain it to you or did he not?” asked Vera in an angry tone of voice. “And what is there to explain? We told him we are not going. Whoever is afraid may go. What will they take from me? I am an old woman without any teeth, what will they do to me? Who wants a woman like me? From everything that I had, only my icon remains. And half of it is burned. Jesus’ legs have been burned by the fire and so is the Virgin Mary’s arm. When my house was burning down, the wall on which the icon was hanging fell and that way at least part of the icon was saved. That’s all that remains in my possession… Who is going to take my crippled Virgin Mary?... asked the old woman. “You have nothing else? Why did you take that black icon?” asked Vera. “I took it so that the Virgin Mary is not abandoned… so that she could be with us, with the people so that she can protect them from evil mouths and eyes and from…” muttered the old woman. At Vane and Menka’s house. “And the copper jug, I said the copper jug,” yelled Vane angrily at Menka, “why are you taking it? You took the kettle too?” “And where do you suppose I am going to keep water? You need to drink water wherever you go… The kettle too will be needed…” replied Menka and after a short silence asked: “Are you sure that’s what she said?” “Forget what she said! Okay… We gathered what we gathered, now let’s load them up. Bring the donkey here,” ordered Vane. Vane bolted the thick wooden door from the inside and then jumped over the wall surrounding the yard and tied the double doors together with a chain and padlocked it from the outside. He turned the key twice and then hid it under the large rock near the door. He crossed himself and said: “It is terrible when one has to padlock his own door…” “Blankets, pillows, plates, spoons ... everything that we have left...” said Menka. “And you, woman, are you going to load the entire house?” replied Vane. “No, I took only what they left, after you voluntarily gave them everything for the struggle. It’s better to take things with us where we can keep an eye on them rather than leave them here unattended. This way at least we will have something left…” said Menka. “Did we forget anything?” asked Vane. “Let me think… Yes we did forget… the cheques. And the Napoleons (gold coins)? I said the Napoleons did you hide them well?” asked Menka. Vane grabbed Menka by the arm, took her aside and whispered in her ear: “I have some of them here,” he tapped his chest, “but most of them I buried in the outhouse. Nobody is going to look there, right? The box with the Napoleons is buried deep down in the hole. No one is going to look there…” The night was hot and humid. The Koreshtanski valley was very hot. The grain heads in the wheat fields were yellowing and the seeds were maturing in the summer heat. The crickets were singing, the dogs were barking and the clouds covered the full moon. The horses were neighing, the cows were mooing, cowbells were ringing, there was yelling, cursing and cries of desperation… The column was long. It moved very slowly, it dragged its way along the highway from Gabresh, around the wide turn, to the bridge. Here it divided itself into two columns; one column extended from here to Breznitsa, Smrdesh and Dmbeni, the other column extended from here all the way to Zhelevo. The trek continued the next day and all through to the next night …

There somewhere at the exit of the wide turn, Vane turned left and, slowly guiding his donkey, took an uphill path and entered the dense forest. The deep darkness of the night did now allow them to travel past the forest and to the boulders above. It wasn’t until the break of dawn that they resumed their trip along the narrow forest path. “It has to be here somewhere…” said Vane while breaking the branches that were blocking his way. He took a few steps further up and stopped. He turned, and pointing with his hand, whispered: “It’s here…” He pushed the low hanging branches to the side. There was a deep gap in the boulder. With his stick he pounded the inside of the rock a few times. Several bats flew out. He stepped inside. He lit a match and, holding it up high, illuminated the entire cave. He looked around until the match went out. He came out. It was still dark outside. “Quickly!” he said and went downhill, “Quickly, let’s unload everything and bring it here while it’s still dark.” When they had brought everything into the cave, Vane said: “We left the donkey down there; I will go and secure it. It can graze in the forest. We will remain here until the bad passes.” “But Vane, when they see that we are missing from the others in the village, will they not look for us?” asked Menka. “May God protect and defend us!” Vane crossed himself. “Don’t say it twice… No one invites the bad, it comes on its own. Come inside, sit down and stop fretting. I will return soon…” ordered Vane. He went down the hill and suddenly stopped. He hid in the tall bushes. One behind another, about ten men and women loaded with sacks, bags and blankets were coming towards him. They passed him by quietly and stayed on the path that led to the cave. “Wife, prepare our things… people are coming…” called Vane. “Who?” asked Menka. “People… They too are hiding. Move our things and make room for them!” ordered Vane. “This does not look good,” said Vane after being silent for a few seconds. “In earlier days some of us hid in the forests and in the mountains to avoid the bad but then we always returned to our homes. Now they told us that we all have to leave, all from across… It doesn’t look good. Two nights ago the people from Dmbeni, Setomo, Tiolishta, Kondorobi, Zagoricheni, Chereshnitsa, Bapchor, Sheshevo, Visheni, Aposkep… all passed by here. Now it’s our turn. The people from Nered, Turie, Konomladi, Gorno and Dolno Statitsa have passed over Lisets. They took their cattle, donkeys, sheep and goats with them. The people were loaded like horses with sacks and bags… Who knows where all this is going…” muttered Vane. “They say a great battle will take place and because of that the People’s Government and the Party want to save us from the bad. Vera was saying that the enemy will be dropping large bombs, they will be dropping flames and fire from the airplanes and everything will burn…” said Menka. “The further you hide from the village the worse it is. The old people hid in such caves, forests and mountains to avoid the bad during Turkish times. They dug themselves into pits and stayed there until it all passed. People hid in such caves and pits during the Ilinden Uprising [1903]… They hid here when that blood thirst no good, may he rot in hell, together with his band of butchers was burning the houses and slaughtering people in these villages… And here we hid, running away from the Italians and Germans…” muttered Vane. “And those who Vera said they were saving last year, what happened to them?” asked Menka. “One of the drivers told me that they relocated them to a village, I think it’s called Prenies; it’s in Albania near the Yugoslav border. The driver said they now live in horse barracks and eat from a communal cauldron,” answered Vane. “Perhaps they want to save us in a similar manner too?” remarked Menka. “I don’t know if that’s what it is, but I do know that it’s wrong to leave our homes…” replied Vane. “Vera said that once our people eject the Greek army from Vicho, we can all go home…”

said Menka. “They told the people from the villages on the other side of Mali-Madi the same thing. After they defeat the enemy at Gramos they will allow the people to return to their homes… It’s been a year since then and in place of sending these people back to their homes, they packed them in horse barracks and made them wait in line in front of a cauldron for their food… The driver, who takes wounded from here to Albania and brings back those who have recovered, told me this. I say this does not look good… it does not look good when they chase people from their homes… I will it say again; I don’t see this as a good thing,” concluded Vane. The Great Lie – Chapter 23