28th October 1940 - The Day Greece said a Loud OXI - NO - to Mussolini
and the 2nd World War Took a Different Turn!
"Until now we used to say that the Greeks
fight like heroes.
Now we shall say: The heroes fight like Greeks."
Now we shall say: The heroes fight like Greeks."
Sir
Winston Churchill - Prime Minister United Kingdom
(From a speech he delivered from the BBC in the first days of the Greco-Italian war)
(From a speech he delivered from the BBC in the first days of the Greco-Italian war)
This ultimatum, a demand that Greece allow Axis forces to enter Greek territory or otherwise face war, was presented to Metaxas by the Italian Ambassador in Greece, Emanuele Grazzi, on October 28, 1940, at dawn (04:00 AM), ironically enough after a party in the German Embassy in Athens. Metaxas, is supposed to have immediately answered with a single word:
'OXI'
Whether he actually did or not, is almost irrelevant...
That simple but determined OXI, however it was said, was symbolic and significant. It represented the sentiments and principles of the entire Greek people. This word marked the beginning of Greece's involvement in the Second World War, an involvement which was to cost Greece dearly, from every point of view. This is our tribute to those noble men and women who fought and died so that today we can be free....
Read more: 28th October 1940 - The Day Greece said a Loud OXI - NO - to Mussolini and the 2nd World War Took a Different Turn!
To Xypolito Tagma - The Barefoot Battalion -
Gregg Tallas' Delightful
Movie about Children in German Occupied Greece
As part of their learning more about the events of World War II and its
consequences for Greece, my 10 year old daughter's class, (she's 5th
year- Pempti - by the way) was taken to see a new release of a
marvellous movie about children growing up in war ravaged Thessaloniki.
She loved it, as did all the children, and as she was telling me about
the movie, Το Ξυπόλυτο Τάγμα or The Barefoot
Battalion, and I read the pamphlet they were given, I remembered
my own parents telling us about the same movie when we were growing up
in our own community so far away from Greece, each time the 28th October
celebrations took place there....
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