Cretan Resistance - Three Ierapetra Villages - The Testimony of Vangelis Grassos

The Testimony of Vangelis Grassos

“Pano Chorio, Kato Chorio and Episkopi formed a small community of 3000 people, positioned 7 km from Ierapetra, in the middle of the plain in a prominent position connecting the Ierapetra area with the Sitia mountain range. They were the strongest and most important base of EAM groups in Yerapetra-Siteia and were also the base for Italo-Germanic operations during the time of the German-Italian occupation.

“Vassilis Grassos writes:

“ was the bastion of the Italians and the Germans and for this reason the occupiers put pressure on the local inhabitants through forced labour and beatings, purely to crush their spirit. They had taken the houses, the livestock and the livelihoods of everyone. Many left to live in makeshift huts in the surrounding mountain villages, in Thrifi etc. “So it was essential for everyone to organise themselves, in order to be able to confront the occupation. This was not an easy task, right in the lion’s den. And yet the first cell began to be organised up in Pano Chorio and in the other villages around. All these cells began to work feverishly to communicate with each other. So began the first sabotage against the occupation, despite the forced labour.

“We organised the wonderful EPON . Slowly the national liberation movement began to grow - EAM which embraced everyone. With the help of Major Ioannis Frantzeskaki and other key figures we managed to find a radio and to hear the political news, especially what was happening on the Russian front. The news bulletin, which was written by Vangelis Grassos, was taken by the EPONites and distributed to personnel in the surrounding villages, who read it to the members and so fired up their enthusiasm and their self-confidence for the final battle. We founded a branch of National Solidarity . “In 1944 the groups of andartes were increasing in the mountains of Malon-Selakano. At the time of the liberation there were two camps of andartes from ELAS Yerapetra-Siteia, with Vardakis Filoktitis as captain. The andartes captured Dr. Lavetzis, collaborator with the Germans, who had become the tormentor and the terror of the villages. It was he who organised the forced labour gangs and also dealt in foodstuffs on the black market. Some of the councillors who opposed his actions were denounced by him to the Italians, who arrested them and sent them to the prison camp of Moni Kroustallenia in Lasithi. were sent to Germany and died in the terrible German concentration camps. This traitor was tried by the andartes court and executed.

“Our group took part in all the missions of ELAS in eastern Crete up to the liberation of Heraklion and the establishment of normality. It reached a strength of 150 men, until it was dissolved after the Varkiza agreement.”

Leading figures in the EAM resistance movement included Yiannis Podias, Miltiades Porfirogenis, Manolis Pitikakis, Nikos Samaritis, Nikos Raiinos, Emmanuel Manousakis, Rousos Koundouros and Mitsos Pappas. Well-known leaders of the EOK movement included Petrakogiorgis and Manolis Bandouvas, who was a prominent figure in EAM from 1941 to 1943, and joined EOK from 1943.