🔴Stefanos Sarafis: "Commander of ELAS, by spitting." 🔴As I have emphasized many times, immediately after the German attack against the USSR, Stalin instructed the communist parties of the occupied countries to organize guerrilla warfare, primarily to harass the Germans, forcing them to maintain strong military forces in these countries, which, otherwise, would have been transferred to the eastern front. 🔴In Greece, a secondary objective of EAM - ELAS was to monopolize the guerrilla movement, to be the only armed force in the country after liberation, and to seize power by force. For this reason, according to G. Papandreou, the tactic was as follows: "It does not allow anyone else to rise to the mountains and fight the occupier. It punishes with death the Greeks who fulfill their patriotic duty. A former example is the present colonel Sarafis..." 🔴So, let's talk about Colonel Sarafis, who was made head of ELAS. He was born in 1890 in Trikala, graduated from the Non-Commissioned Officers School and became a second lieutenant in 1913. He sided with the Venizelists and actively participated in the failed military movements of 1933 and 1935. 🔴During the occupation and after discussions with various individuals about creating a resistance organization, a five-member committee was formed (Sarafis, Grigoriadis, Panopoulos, Chatzimpeis and Simos Vlachos), which evolved into the AAA Organization (3A, Struggle – Restoration – Independence). With the approval of the others, Sarafis went to Thessaly to form a guerrilla unit. 🔴After contacts he made there, he moved to Epirus, where on February 7, 1943, he met with Zervas and the representative of the Middle East Command, Colonel Eddie Myers, and they agreed to form guerrilla groups, with three sections: Epirus, led by Zervas; Thessaly, led by Sarafis; and Roumeli, led by Psarros. 🔴As soon as the news spread in Thessaly, EAM considered that with Sarafis’s reputation in the area, he could become a very dangerous opponent. Thus, initially, the mechanism of his moral extermination was put into operation, with the accusations that he was "a collaborator of the Italians" and "a man of the occupied prefect of Trikala." After the slanders did not succeed, EAM decided to take more drastic measures. 🔴After a trap, they treacherously captured him and other armed leaders, as well as 150 guerrillas who followed them. Ultimately, EAM decided that it would be preferable to force him to join ELAS rather than kill him. So, they locked him in a dungeon, and following orders, ELAS guerrillas would pass in front of him, spit on him and label him a "traitor," to break his spirits. 🔴When faced with the dilemma of "ELAS or the grave," Sarafis preferred to save his life. Of course, the communists exploited his joining to convince other former officers who hesitated to join ELAS due to the bad reputation that accompanied him. Of course, the position they gave him, that of the military leader of ELAS, was more "decorative," as decisions were made by the "chief captain" Aris Velouchiotis and the political commissioner Andreas Tzimas. 🔴The results of recruiting officers were mediocre because it had become known how Sarafis was forced to join ELAS. It is historically recorded, the phrase of politician Georgios Kartalis to Sarafis: "You were made commander of ELAS by spitting." 🔴What would have been Sarafis's fate if the KKE had prevailed? There is no doubt that he would have met the same fate as all the "fellow travelers" of the communists around the world. In the first "cleansing," he would be labeled a "agent" and "enemy of the people" and would be taken to the firing squad! Specifically, Sarafis would certainly be labeled an "agent of the Intelligence Service," as he had married British archaeologist Marion Pascoe. 🔴The comments are yours! (translated)
