Papa Spiro

Here we are, once again at the museum behind the church at Kavos with Kostas and Papa Spiro.

The museum, well it's more like a cluttered storehouse of old artefacts  mainly  from the Second World War with other artefacts and militaria from  other periods there too.  There's an armoury of old guns from the Corfiot  militia (their Home Guard). Several Italian and German planes were shot down or crash landed on the island during the Second World War and there are bits and pieces from those aircraft scattered around in an ad-hoc manner.

The pictures on the wall are from servicemen who visited the island after the war and there's several images of  the crew of an American Flying Fortress who crashed at Lefkimmi  during the island's German occupation from 1943 onwards. The crew, who all survived, were spirited away from the island dressed in civilian clothing and kept away from the Germans who would have executed them all had they found them.  Original letters at the museum from the crew members show how eternally grateful they all were to the people of Corfu who kept them safe and out of the hands of the enemy.

The people of Corfu still recall this period well and remember the harsh treatment they suffered at the hands of the Germans who left no food for locals and looted and pillaged wherever they went.  Kostas, a local historian and aircraft enthusiast in his own right, told me the Germans  killed many many people on the island during the occupation, including women and children - he went into some detail about the manner of the cold-blooded killings, but that's not for this post.  What he said will remain in my head forever though. Per head of population, he told me that statistically the Germans killed more Greeks than any other country they occupied.

Prior to 1943 the island had been occupied by the Italians, but after the German occupation, Kostas tells me that the Italians left on the island were left to the mercy of the Germans who executed them summarily wherever they  found them. 

Kostas' elderly father recalled these horrendous times in much detail and Kostas tells of one tale he was told, where a group of captured British Servicemen were being walked at gunpoint on the island through the town and, as the Germans passed a local woman, one of them hit and punched her to the ground,  whereupon one of the British Serviceman jumped out and floored the soldier to the ground, calling him all the names under the sun for his outrageous behaviour. The serviceman was hit with the butt of a rifle in retaliation and was marched on to whatever fate awaited him.  Who he was and what happened to him we shall never know, but what a brave soul he was.  Well done that man.

Lest we forget!

#Corfu #Lefkimmi #Second WorldWar #WarTale #HistoricalNovel #TrueStory #LivingHistory