Early next morning he was siting ,on a near by mountain top with another man waiting for a looter to come by ,so they can give him a lesson about taking other peoples property .But the looter took another pathway from the otherside of the mountain ,that is when they realised that they would not get their chance of revenge,then my Grandfather said I must go home and protect my family ,beaucause there isn't going to be another resistence and they are going to make it to Paleochora very quick .The other man suggested that my Grandfather take his family on to the mountains for a while just to be sure .As he was climbing over the Mountain he could see the people in Paleochora going mad running up the hilsides with their belognings thinking that the town would have been wiped out and on the other side the Germans were afraid to enter the town yet ,just in case it was a trap again .My Grandfather sat there watching the outcome the Germans did not use the main road into the town instead they came from the Mountain as if they were attacking .Then night fall came and he walked up the road to his surprise?? All the mountain sides were full of lights like it was a party everyone had taken their Families out of the village and into the mountains trusting the safety of the Caves .He came home and told his Mother to gather everyone and so they did he lead them into the mountains above the village,by this time his older brother Leonidas had returned from Kandanos also making the family complete once more .Their life was now diferent they could not go out and work in the fields, they could not go to the local cafe, to their Animals or home to tend to the gardens, in the evenings my Grandfather went out and came back with food and walked in the dark to go and do his chores. Then one morning came a mesenger ,saying that everyone could return to their homes ,it was safe. The Germans said they would not harm anyone .For a while he went home on his own the slowly slowly brought his mother ,brothers ,and sisters back .About this time came a notice from the comunity of Paleochora every family had to turn in their weapons ,if not they would be executed so he took his fathers old musket and stumbled down to Paleochora and gave it in .They then asked him if he had anymore weapons and he replied no we are a peaceful Family and the German Officer Hans Vahter replied I am sure you are ,as matter of fact you are all so?? peaceful that we have lost our best man trying to reach your shity town. My Grandfather did not know what to reply so he said we were told that invaders were coming to make slaves out of us, like the Turks once did and as humans we reacted to this threat. Then the German said to him, react anymore? and ill burn your houses with you inside them .My Grandfather angerly said can I go now?? the Officer looked at him and he said you can go for now but know this Idont' like you ,I can see the flames in your eyes, you smell of danger, so I'll tell you once more tell all your friends up there to be quiet or else???? .My Grandfather left with his heart pumping so hard and full of anger he wanted to take this man down ??? 'cause in Crete you never threaten a mans family, that meant your instant death ,but he could do nothing about it.A short while passed by with peace and then again a notice was posted in the village telling each family to send someone to work in slave labour for the Germans to prepare ditches and resistence positions if that was not enough they asked for a certain percentage of animals from each family ,my Grandfather said ill go take a goat down and ill do the slave labour the rest of you stay home and the brothers replied it could be a trap they allready executed some people in town what if they do the same to you.My gradfahter not wanting to cause stress to his family replied dont worry there is no reason to kill a peasent like myself but deep inside knowing it could happen he left anything of value home so they would not have it while arriving in town with the Goat he said I brought an animal as reqouested and they said to him only one animal how many do you have only 4 he replied and they believed him then ha said I've also come to do the labour on behalf of my family you can start by helping the Butcher slauchter some animals .So the first day he worked with butchers their butcher had one eye and he was huge I dont remember if he was Greek or German but my Grandfather said he never saw a scarrier looking man in his life. He would skin the animal in less then four minutes he told me they were even collecting the blood perhaps for somekind of food, he slept in town and for the next 3 to 4 days they had him digging trenches and building walls then he saw the president of Paleochora and he said to him why are they making us do all this work and he said to my Grandfather because when allied powers will come they need somekind of defense then my Grandfather said you mean we are helping them to keep us under their thumb.Yes Eftihi we are helping the Germans but we have no choice they will kill us other wise as they were talking 2 airplanes came over the town and started bombing the Germans one of them got away but the second one was shot down by the sandy beach .Then my Grandfather said I will not be a part of this masacre they are making us dig holes for land mines along the beach and set up their weapons on forteza to kill our allies I am going home, then the president of Palechora said to him if you leave they will kill your family and he replied I dont care if they do? I'd rather know we died heroic for our Country rather than having people say thats the man who dug those holes for the land mines that killed our allies and he walked away. Luckily for him the Germans had more important things to do then chasing after a deserting Cretan from slave labour .Time passed My Grandfather joined the resistence Group EOK the NATIONAL ORGANIZATION OF CRETE and started to take part in diferent operations for our freedom ,but in the same time he had to come down from the Mountains and do farm work and look after his younger brothers , and of course all the relatives that came down to the village from Athens due to starvation .They created a code between them in the Villages so they knew when someone was coming to the area one of the most common was the Goats are coming, meaning the Germans are coming an early morning my granfather came home and put his rifle inside his Mothers big treassure chest ,as he was trying to make himself breakfast someone snuk up to him from outside ?? it was a German soldier he then thought to himself ,shit they got me. For a second his head started spining but than he realized the soldier had a smile on his face and no rifle on his shoulder my Grandfather said to him hallo and he replied ehis Raki do you have Raki yes said, my Grandfather come in and he brought the bottle over and let the man drink all he wanted. There was only one problem the soldier was sitting on top of the treassure chest not knowing what to do my grandfather was thinking if he opens the chest and he sees the rifle Ill stab him with the kitchen knife but this never took place .The man got drunk and peacefully went away. To be continued no has the right to reproduce any of this story or photos without the written permision of the author The photo above is My Grandfather in Florina on the 10-of July 1949 ,he is on the right side next to the Radio
