NO-ONE REMEMBERS

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33532, 13 May 1974, Page 1

NO-ONE REMEMBERS

A Greek who as a boy of 15 helped hide and feed 23 New Zealand and Australian soldiers cut off from their retreating armies in German-occupied Greece during World War 11, arrived in Christchurch yesterday hoping to find some of the men he had helped shelter, but found that no-one apparently remembered him.

“They would all be 57 or 60 by now; perhaps they are all dead,” said Mr George Samalis, who comes from Katerini in Macedonia. No-one from the war days met Mr Samalis at the airport when he arrived from Australia yesterday morning, though his story had been printed in “The Press” a fortnight ago, and small gifts he carried with him went undelivered.

However, he did call on the Mayor (Mr N. G. Pickering) to give him a small plaque as a token of friendship.

The soldiers Mr Samalis remembers were hidden among families in Katerini from 1941 until liberation in 1944. Once a week, Mr Samalis helped collect a week’s supply of food from townspeople and deliver it to the hiding men, who during the day were concealed under floors, in basements and the like. Mr Samalis remembers the risk. He used to black his face and get the food at night. The New Zealanders were conspicuous — “they were tall and blond, while Greeks are short and dark. But not one was caught. “Unfortunately, before the end of the war I was chased by Germans, and in August, 1944, I was forced to leave Katerini and hide myself in Thessalonika.” Mr Samalis was not told the soldiers’ names in case he was caught. He left Christchurch last evening for Oamaru where he will attend his nephew’s wedding on Saturday.