For Greeks, the 28 October 1940 was a date that shaped national identity. ‘OXI Day’ is a celebration of Hellenic pride and strength. A day that showed the world Greeks weren’t easily bullied. They were a race that would stand, fight and defend; a race that would hold their heads high and say, ‘No’.
Today, when Greece and Greek identity is being questioned, we will no doubt see Greeks all over the world celebrate their national day with pride.
But essentially, 28 October 1940 is the day that saw Greece enter World War II. The then Prime Minister of Greece, Ioannis Metaxas, rejected Italy’s leader Benito Mussolini’s ultimatum – let Italian troops pass freely through Greece or face war. Metaxas responded to the ultimatum with one simple word, ‘oxi.’ He said, ‘no.’
On the 28 October 1940, the Italian army entered Greece from Albania. From that moment on Greece was under attack. World War II was a gruesome war; historically it was the deadliest war. Over 400,000 Greeks died as a result of the fighting that saw up to 60 million people lose their lives.
From his home in Adelaide, Leonidas Michos enjoys the simple things in life. At the age of 82, Michos has retired. He was a property developer, yet now opts for gentler pursuits – tending to his garden, spending time with his five grandchildren and filling his house with love, family and friends.
But there was a time when his life was unsafe, hard and chaotic, a time in another country where as a child, he witnessed the atrocities of war.
For Michos, 28 October is a date that fills him with terror, not national pride. As an eleven-year-old, Michos was there in the village of Terovo, Epirus, situated in the countryside where the Italians invaded.
“With the first gunshot of the war people died, and that’s not a thing to be celebrated,” says Michos with pain in his voice. The 28 October 1940 is a date etched in his memory as the day the bombs started.
“We heard it, we heard the bombs,” remembers Michos. “We could hear the planes flying over and dropping bombs on Ioannina. We could hear the cannons.”
As a child, he knew that his country had gone to war and then, as it is now, his impression of war is a simplistic one, “war means somebody is going to kill you.”
To him, ‘OXI Day’ is a day on which we should remember the evils of war, a day we should pray that war never comes to us again.
“War is the worst thing. You can see your brother, your son, your sister be killed. Even to try and think of what war is, what it’s like; you still can’t imagine it.”
When war broke out, Michos said panic spread throughout the village. The village was disconnected from what was going on in Ioannina, the closest main city and the one under attack, and knew little of what to expect and ultimately, what would happen to them.
“Everyone was terrified in the village when the war started,” Michos remembers.
“They were scared about what will happen to them, what is going on, what will become of the village, their family? Where will they hide? Where will they go?”
And then the villages of Greece were under attack. Planes began flying over and shooting at them with machine guns, a noise that can’t easily be erased from his memory.
“When we heard the planes coming we would go hide in the caves with all the other villagers, and wait till it was quiet.” Were you scared?
“Of course I was scared,” he answers emphatically. “You start thinking to yourself what is going on, what is happening.”
Not a man was left in the village, only male children. Here was a child who would look at the fields and mountains of his village and not one man would be in sight. Young, old, healthy, sick – it didn’t matter, all the men had left to fight in the war.
“I remember when all the men came back, on their feet, when the war was over. Most were hungry and barefoot.” With all the men gone to fight in the war, the women were left behind to tend to the land, look after the house and keep their children safe. On top of that, they supported their soldiers in every way they could.
“All the women of the village would gather and make clothes to keep the soldiers warm. Women would make uniforms, shirts, socks, blankets everything for the soldiers. I remember my mum, my sister; all the women in the village would do this.”
To have lived through a war as a child, to witness your family and your village suffering, to not know if tomorrow you would die, is unfathomable.
“War is a terrible, terrible thing that should never happen,” said Michos. “There is nothing worse than war and I pray that the next generation never have to see it.”
“Just do your best to lead a simple, honest life and leave the politics to the politicians.” Sound words from a grandfather, father, husband, brother and uncle who saw and heard things a child should never have to.