JANE'S MEMOIRS PART ONE

Jane Paraschis was a  Greek girl born in India at the beginning of the third decade of the 20^th century.   She considers herself lucky as she had devoted parents, Steven and Rena Paraschis, who brought her up with loving care, nurturing her strengths, improving her weaknesses and offering her the best possible in the way of education.

One of Jane’s first faint memories was an image of her beautiful mother sitting in front of a mirror, in the sunshine, brushing her gleaming light brown hair.  Another rather nasty memory was, when, a large ant had bitten her finger, in the garden in Karachi.

Drawings Depicting the Words Learnt in Class

As a small child, Jane had many friends and they all attended a nursery school with an inspired young teacher, Mrs Matilda Brown, where they learnt how to identify letters and their sounds and how they join together to form words. Also, each day, they designed the item, animal or human being described by the new words that they had learnt, like girl, house, puppy etc.  By the end of the school year, they could read and write small sentences, each of which started with a capital letter, and they had, already, grasped the meaning of punctuation marks.  They also learned about numbers, how to count up to 100 and basic addition and subtraction. They were instructed about the components of the calendar, like days, weeks, months and seasons, about time and how it flies (!) and also about animals, plants, the weather and the five senses.  And last but not least they were taught not to lie and about being fair, taking turns and being kind to others.


Jane still remembers the absolute satisfaction that she had experienced when swimming and splashing in the sea with her friends, at the beautiful beaches near Karachi.  Also, the wonderful children's birthday parties that she had attended with fabulous events and food, and the impatience and glee that she had felt while opening the multicoloured parcels, revealing the lovely gifts, under the Christmas tree.  She certainly had a very happy early childhood. 

Jane’s father worked for a large international firm, they lived in a lovely house in Karachi, had interesting friends, attended receptions and parties, were members of local clubs and went on a six-month home leave, every 3 years.  That was what life was like, for all the "Europeans"* living in  British India.   

Jane does not remember the first time they went on home leave.  But in 1940, she clearly recalls that they had a wonderful holiday in Greece, with a long stay in Loutraki, a spa near Athens, where she and her nanny had found a live lobster on a pebble beach! A pleasant and very special memory!

 Map of Europe Showing the Countries Occupied by the Italians and the Germans

While the deadliest war in human history was raging in the rest of Europe, most Greeks, living in a fool’s paradise, staunchly believed that Italy and Germany would never attack a small country like theirs, despite the fact that the Italians had, already, sunk the Greek light cruiser Elli on the 15th  August 1940, the day of the festival commemorating the Dormition of the Virgin Mary.  Hopeful thinking, perhaps?


But, unfortunately, on the 28^th October 1940, Italy declared war on Greece.  The Italian Ambassador, Emanuelle Grazzi, visited the Greek Prime Minister, Ioannis Metaxas to present Mussolini's ultimatum to Greece, demanding the cession of the Greek territory which, naturally, the Prime Minister denied.  According to popular rumours, Metaxas aid OXI (no) but he, actually, told Grazzi "Alors, c'est la guerre" (So, we have war).  By September 1940, the Italians had already invaded, France, British Somaliland and Egypt, so they considered Greece an extremely easy target.  

Although greatly outnumbered, the Greek army forces were fighting so bravely and successfully against the Italians, that by November the 22^nd 1940, they were, steadily advancing deep into Albania.  This compelled Hitler to send German reinforcements to support the Italians, thus delaying the attack against the Soviet Union.  According to the World War II historian, David Irving, Hitler had a great admiration for the Greeks and all they had done for civilization and greatly regretted having to fight against them.   Nevertheless, the result was, that Greece was, unfortunately,  occupied by the Axis in the early spring of 1941, despite unrelenting resistance and bravery.  

The Nazi Troops Raising the Swastika on the Acropolis, Next to the Parthenon

Naturally, the Greeks were absolutely devastated by the turn of events, but also very proud of their glorious epic against the Italians in Albania which had, apparently, changed the course of the war.  Winston Churchill had said, then: “Hence we shall not say that Greeks fight like heroes, but that heroes fight like Greeks”  Even, their arch-enemy, the monstrous Adolph Hitler, had said “The Greek soldier, above all, fought with the utmost of courage.”

During the occupation, not only did the Nazis embezzle the bullion from the Greek State, requisition houses and steal cars and other vehicles from individuals, but, moreover, they stripped the land and shops of food in order to provide for their own troops.

Jane and her parents, forced by these terrible events, did not return to India as was planned, but stayed in Argostoli, during World War II.  Cephalonia was first occupied by the Italians and later by the Germans, from the spring of 1941 to the autumn of 1944. 


Four disastrous years for the country and for the whole of occupied Europe, during which, people were intimidated, imprisoned and driven out of their homes, and the most tragic part of all, millions of European Jews were brutally executed in ghastly concentration camps, while others died of starvation.  During the year 1941-1942, 40.000 Greeks starved to death.  Unbelievable crimes against humanity brought about by two madmen, two egocentric monstrous leaders, Hitler and Mussolini and their barbaric collaborators.

·     *EUROPEANS was a term used by the local residents in the British Colonies about white people of European, Australian, New Zealandia, Canadian, American or South African descent. 

(I wish to thank ERT, SKY TV gr, BBC, CNN, the Greek and International press and the historian Mr David Irving for the valuable information, without which, this post would have been published.)

Greek Heroes Fighting the Italians in Albania