He escaped the GESTAPO prisons, the Pavlos Melas prisons in Thessaloniki and the concentration camp in Stein, Austria. He buried 700 of his comrades who were executed by the SS in the massacre of April 6, 1945. He himself survived by falling just before the rattle of the machine gun. And yesterday "I have my mind four hundred..." he declared and celebrated his 100th birthday.
At Skala ton Mystegna with his friends, the "Friends of historical memory and cultural creation", who organized the celebration, his daughters in Australia to participate via video conference, a representative of his village, Skalochori, and its people.
A Mytilene eyewitness of the Nazi atrocity, the atrocity of the war is barba Giannis, Giannis Karageorgiou. And listening to him tell his story is riveting.
In April 1942, Yannis Karageorgiou with his brother Lambros and 18 other young people from the northwestern part of the island decided to escape and go to the Middle East to fight the Axis. In the small church of Agios Fokas, where they were looking for a way to leave, they are arrested by the Germans and taken to the GESTAPO prisons in Surada of the city.
A letter in the belongings of one of those arrested addressed to an officer serving in the Middle East is the material on the basis of which the 20 youths are sentenced to five years in prison. They are taken to the prison-camp of Pavlos Melas in Thessaloniki, where two lose their lives from the hardships. In April 1944, they were transferred to a prison-barracks in Stein, Austria. A few days before the capitulation of Nazi Germany, the SS executes 800 prison inmates. Among them four of the 18 Mytileneites. At the last moment, Yannis Karageorgiou escapes.
His narration shortly after blowing out the candles on his 100th birthday cake is shocking:"They took us and put us against a wall... I was... in threes to the side near the wall, in front of me were two others... Before he put... in 20-30 meters he had machine guns, I fell down... next to the wall... and the corpses fell on me... I realized that I hadn't eaten any!
"I sat there for an hour and a half... 25 corpses would have fallen on top of me and next to me... I was a dead bug! Sometimes they brought another batch to kill... but they were Italian workers who had papers... they didn't kill them... but they didn't chase them either... They gave them a blanket in pairs and the killed were passed by and taken 20 meters further to open graves.
"Sometimes it was my turn... they caught me and put me on a blanket... I also got up on my ass and sat down. I looked to my side to see if there was a German to see me… there was none. I call the Italians German rollen, it means don't talk... I also went and grabbed the edge of a blanket... and luckily I got the clothes from the warehouse.
“I didn't tell you that when we came to the prisons we gave our clothes, they put them in a box and they gave us the prison clothes (striped overalls) but because we left the prisons in a disorderly manner – where can I find mine? !!!- I went and got another box... It had a brown suit inside, I threw away the prison clothes and put the brown suit on...
"There was some blood on it, I wiped it a little, it was brown, it wasn't very visible... I caught it too - I told the Italians don't talk, let's see what happens... I also picked them up and took them to where they would open graves... At the same time, they killed Arada... sometimes he comes one by one with a ruler and marks two graves three by four meters and says three meters eruanda - he will say 3 meters below...
"He took us to a warehouse, gave us money and money." I grab a little bit... But always keep my head down, don't be seen... The Italians were laughing... I tell them don't laugh. Finally we dug in... all day long they killed... they killed about 700 nomads. At the same time, when we opened the graves, I went down... One foot of people, how do they pickle sardines, one foot of soil, one foot of people, one foot of soil... Let's not count them, they threw about 700 people into the two pits...
"I was always pasturing until the evening... like a sardine... When the pit reached half a meter from the ground, they brought truckloads of lime - and they put it out on top... Do you know why? So that it doesn't stink... as I found out later. And we buried them, man... They put us back in the cells again... After two days, they took us from the prisons, put us on a dingy on the Danube and took us from Austria to Bavaria... to a village called 'Bernau...'.
From the group of 20 young people who wanted to fight the Nazis in Mytilini, 14 returned. The 100-year-old Barba Giannis celebrated his birthday. "'Let's see what happens'..." he said and said again, smiling.
SOURCE:APE-ME