"All of ancient Greece was brought to life around us by Ilias Kanaris, as well as the quality of its deaths. Not because he is braver than other brave men, but because he embraces the difficult hour with such brio that the enemies stand weak against him. Without suspecting it himself, he thinks like Socrates. They can't hurt him in anything, they can only kill him. But he plays the game of war and death with joy, he revels in it. Like Odysseus, he treats his big and small virtues, readiness, cunning, manly soul, physical strength.
"Ilias Kanaris was a practical engineer from Smyrna. In the first year of slavery he organized departures for Egypt. In April 1942, the Germans caught him and imprisoned him in Averof (Averof prisons in Athens). When the interrogations began, they asked him to show them the place from where the boats left. Kanaris accepted. He took them and took them to the village of Vathi in Chalkida, but from prison he had agreed with a friend of his. Showing the Germans the house of this friend, he said to them:"There is a transmitter there, the six of them to guard outside, in case the radio operator leaves, and I and one of you should go inside and catch him." Once inside, Kanaris and his friend gagged and bound the German and disarmed him.
"Seven months Kanaris was hiding in Chalkida and the Germans were frantically looking for him in the most unlikely places. In the end he was caught a second time, convicted and executed on February 24th. His sentence is heavy. Three times to death and three years of imprisonment. But this conviction fills him with pride. He writes to his friends:"I, Ilias Kanaris, champion and record holder of future deaths, write to you".
"He writes to his brother, a cripple from the Albanian front:"My brother, I am the most severely judged of all those executed to date. I have broken records. Now, writing to you I laugh. I don't want you to mourn me. I want you to gather your friends and set a table for them and read them my letter and drink them to the rest of my soul. I don't want anyone to cry. I want you to behave like men and like Greeks. I am dying for the Motherland... »
"But there, where his human soul bends, it's like saying goodbye to his two-year-old boy:"My Costa, I want you to forgive me, for leaving you young and an orphan. I want you to pray for me. My child, never play cards and wrong no woman. In your life be honest and sincere. Love your country and be a good Christian. My boy, I die like a boy, with your name on my lips, my yoke, my boy, forgive me for leaving you an orphan..." . Yesterday this two-year-old boy came and found me with his grandmother, because his mother is sick. Of course, he still doesn't understand what a great legacy his father left him".
Ioannas Tsatsou, TITLE SHEETS