The spring of 1941 marked the start of a challenging new period for my grandparents. Fortunately on the homefront, little Chrysanthy and Anastasia were transitioning well to American public school; 3-year-old old Tasso was adjusting to wearing leg braces to correct his bone growth. But the threat of war loomed over the country Yiayia now called home. And even worse, the atrocities of World War II soon arrived on the shores of her beloved Greece.
With the Axis invasion and subsequent occupation no one could leave Greece. And no mail could move in or out. So my grandparents scoured every American newspaper. And the English words Yiayia was learning to decipher painted a frightening picture. (Photos courtesy of Getty Images.)
Enemy forces were committing unspeakable atrocities against Greeks on the mainland - killing them in hangings, massacres, and through systematic starvation. Although Greek civilians formed one of the most effective resistance movements in Occupied Europe, uprisings were met with swift and brutal reprisals. For a single German soldier killed, scores of Greek civilians would be murdered.
The Allies fought to end the occupation, but their extensive bombings also destroyed once beautiful port cities. And while it was a valiant fight to the end, Crete ultimately fell to enemy forces as well. Conditions grew even more dire as the Axis powers turned their focus on the Jewish population in Greece. They began mass deportations, sending the Jews of Thessaloniki and Thrace in packed box cars to distant German death camps.
Many Greeks tried to help their fellow Jewish countrymen hide or run, but ultimately Greece fell into an even deeper sense of despair. Separated by thousands of miles, Yiayia and Papou despaired of any word of the family they'd left behind. But none came. And suddenly the fate of Yiayia's beloved mother in Kythera and siblings in Athens became one of depressing, terrifying uncertainty.