Zampia Manousaka Marinos

Our mother was born and lived in the village of Melidoni on the island of Crete.  She was twenty years old when World War II engulfed Europe.

Greece entered the war in October of 1940.  Italy, which had overtaken Albania, was massing troops along the border with Greece.  Mussolini issued a demand for immediate surrender by the Greek government; otherwise, he claimed that in twenty-four hours he would conquer Greece and be drinking his coffee in Athens.  Greece refused to capitulate.  Mussolini's forces invaded and the conflict began.

The Greek forces fought the Italians for seven months.  They pushed back the invading army and took over the Albanian territory previously occupied by the Italians.

Germany rallied to the aid of its Axis ally and began fighting Greece in April of 1941.  The German war machine was able to defeat Greece in two months.  Zampia was quite proud that, although the entire nation of France fell in two weeks, her island alone lasted thirteen days before being captured.

With the government exiled in Egypt and the Greek mainland and islands under Nazi occupation, the Greek armies fled into the mountains and fought as guerrillas. 

The German occupiers were brutal with the local population. Zampia told stories of groups, and sometimes entire villages, of men being marched out to fields, where they forced to dig pits, and then machine-gunned into the mass graves.

Allied forces, mainly British, smuggled supplies to the guerrillas.  Zampia carried supplies on her back and cooked food for the guerrilla encampments.

Two opposing movements emerged in the underground resistance to the Nazi occupation forces.  One resistance movement was loyal to the Greek republican government in exile.  The other group aligned itself with Communism.  The British provided aid to both factions.

By February of 1945, the Nazis were losing their grip on the island of Crete.  The larger cities were still controlled by the Germans.  Much of the rural areas were not under direct Nazi influence.  The opposing Greek resistance forces battled for control of the countryside.

The men of Melidoni had been drafted and were scattered throughout the country, involved in guerrilla fighting.  Our mother's brother, Nico Manousaka, was a captain in the Greek republican resistance.  As World War II drew to a close, civil war erupted in Greece between the Communist insurgents and Greek royalist forces.

One day, approximately 300 communist guerrillas approached the village of Melidoni.  They were aware that a captain of the opposing faction was from this village.  An announcement was made that they were going to burn Manousaka's house, take his sister to the hills, and then burn the remainder of the village.

Our mother and her family suffered greatly during the war.  She prayed to leave the poverty and pain that she endured in her homeland.

When Leonidas returned to Greece, her prayer was answered.  Manoli, our father's brother, was acquainted with the Manousaka family.  The two met and a marriage was subsequently arranged.

Shortly thereafter, Zampia and Leonidas Marinos departed for the United States -- full of optimism and hope, and looking forward to their new life together.

Conclusion