Witnesses of the 2nd world war WWII in Greece | Page 18

During the German occupation, things for people in Greece were very bad, people died and lots of them starved, and got exhausted. No matter how many books someone may read, it is still very difficult to understand what the word “War” means. However, Mrs. Dorothy and her husband as we chatted together made me travel back to those tough years of war. Mrs. Dorothy starts talking… “Dear Valia, you live a great life and I am very happy for that. It wasn’t the same for us. We lost our childhood because of the war. I was in the third class of Primary School when my teacher came in and announced to us that the conquerors will come to burn our homes, chase and kill us. He also encouraged us to leave our town to save ourselves. I left school and when I returned home my mother was very upset. She was holding a few clothes and took us to the nearest mountain of Tsaritsani. We tried to camp there and lived in a small hut for a lot of months. I have dim memories but something I will never forget is STARVATION! Especially my brothers, sisters and I were starving. My mother had nothing to give us. We asked for some bread and she was desperate. She didn’t know what to do. She looked at us and said: “I have nothing to give you but my heart , you can take it…” (Tears run down her cheeks) Oh my God, harsh memories. I can also remember how difficult it was to collect herbs to eat early in the dawn because we didn’t want her to see us. Just next day, our brave parents left us for a while and returned to our home in order to take some bread that was left at home. We tried to organize our lives on the mountain. My mother prepared our food, a little bread, but we didn’t have much flour left. It was only for a