Nikoalos Liontu

“Dad was wounded in the war against the Germans. Then there was some armistice and Dad wanted to go home for the holiday. When the Englishmen were bombing them and firing from their ships at the shore, they hit Dad, and he was left buried somewhere there. He didn’t make it home. Mom then had to toil in the field with grandpa, who was elderly, and grandma was helping them.”

“Germans arrived to our village. I remember it. They were saying: ´Cluck, cluck.´ They wanted eggs. Grandma was giving them eggs, and they would be giving us chewing gums or bonbons. That’s what I remember. I know that Dad was in the army and he fought against the Germans. They set our cellar on fire. The beams were burning. We were hidden somewhere here. As soon as they left, we had to put down the fire quickly.”

“Soldiers from the government army were coming to the villages. They were visiting houses and looking for partisans who might be hiding there. I remember that my uncle had a hiding place on the threshing floor. There was one place for threshing, which belonged to the neighbour, and which was lower, and our threshing floor which was higher. There was a fence, and he had a hole behind that fence where he was hiding. That was because at that time, young men had to be either with the partisans or with the government army. And if they didn’t want to join either of them, they had to hide somewhere.”