The following article is courtesy of the Greek Herald in Australia and written by Victoria Loutas
The Battle of Gorgopotamos, also known as Operation Harling, was a pivotal event within World War II. It was one of the first major sabotage acts in Axis – occupied Europe and the beginning of a permanent British involvement with the Greek resistance.
Background
Operation Harling was a result of collaborative action between the British Special Operations Executive (SOE) in cooperation with the Greek resistance groups EDES and ELAS. The groups met late summer 1942, to discuss their tactical plan. The plan consisted of blowing up one of the three bridges Papadia, Asopou and Gorgopotamos (all three are located in the mountain range of Brallo), over which passes the railway line from Thessaloniki to Athens.
The strategic benefits of destroying the railway lines which connect Thessaloniki to Athens would immensely help both Greek and British operation, as it would cause the supply of Rommel’s German army to be cut off in North Africa.
In the following days, British officers Colonel Eddie Myers and Captain Hamson spotted all three possible sabotage areas and deemed the Gorgopotamos bridge to be the easiest target.
The Mission
In the few days leading up to the operation, all party leaders arrived and the area was inspected by a joint guerrilla group. By November 22nd, the final plan was drawn up and the operation was set for the night of November 25th.
The Gorgopotamos Bridge was guarded by over 100 Italian and German soldiers who each held heavy machine guns. Little did they know, they had over 150 SOE, EDES and ELAS soldiers coming their way. The plan was to neutralize or harass the guard by the guerrillas, while the commandos would place the explosives to blow up the bridge.
Finally, at 11:07pm on November 25th, the attacks took place and everything went according to plan. By the next morning, two sections of the bridge had been blown up, putting the railway out of operation.
Aftermath
The victory for Britain and Greece in the Battle of Gorgopotamos was a great reward to the tried Greek people and turned out to be one of the largest, successful acts of sabotage in World War II.
Out of the 150 men who undertook the operation, only four soldiers were injured. However, a few days later, in retaliation, 9 Greek patriots were executed in the area of the damaged bridge. Whilst Operation Harling was an extremely successful operation, its impact was unfortunately limited, as it was carried after a holiday, causing its two month delay. By this point, Rommel’s forces had already moved further west, and thus the supply through Greece played no role.
In 1964, thousands of people gathered in Gorgopotamos to celebrate the 22nd anniversary of the bombing of the bridge
This was truly one of the most inspirational interviews I have ever heard.
Celebrated author and Holocaust survivor Dr Edith Eger is the keynote speaker at this year’s Kristallnacht Commemoration. Kristallnacht – The Night of Broken Glass – marked the onset of the Holocaust on November 9-10 , 1938. On that day, Nazi forces set fire to about 1000 synagogues, destroyed 7000 Jewish-owned businesses, arrested 30,000 Jews and murdered 91 Jews in Germany and Austria.
Winner of the National Jewish Book Award and Christopher Award
At the age of sixteen, Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Hours after her parents were killed, Nazi officer Dr. Josef Mengele, forced Edie to dance for his amusement and her survival. Edie was pulled from a pile of corpses when the American troops liberated the camps in 1945.
Edie spent decades struggling with flashbacks and survivor’s guilt, determined to stay silent and hide from the past. Thirty-five years after the war ended, she returned to Auschwitz and was finally able to fully heal and forgive the one person she’d been unable to forgive—herself.
Edie weaves her remarkable personal journey with the moving stories of those she has helped heal. She explores how we can be imprisoned in our own minds and shows us how to find the key to freedom. The Choice is a life-changing book that will provide hope and comfort to generations of readers.
At 16, Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Her parents were killed, but she survived until the camp was liberated. In this powerful New York Times bestseller, she recounts the following decades — and why she returned to Auschwitz 35 years later. “A reminder of what courage looks like in the worst of times” (Oprah Winfrey).
In 1944, sixteen-year-old ballerina Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz. Separated from her parents on arrival, she endures unimaginable experiences, including being made to dance for the infamous Josef Mengele. When the camp is finally liberated, she is pulled from a pile of bodies, barely alive.
The horrors of the Holocaust didn’t break Edith. In fact, they helped her learn to live again with a life-affirming strength and a truly remarkable resilience.
The Choice is her unforgettable story. It shows that hope can flower in the most unlikely places.
The years are quickly slipping away and the stories of courage, bravery and the best of humanity will be part of history when the heroes of World War II pass away. The Times of Israel features one such hero, 92 year old Melpomeni Dina from Thessaloniki who saved so many Jewish lives. I’m just finishing writing Enemy at the Gate and it’s a reminder that a real life Zoe Lambros risked her life to save others. Thank you Melpomeni Dina and your family for finding the courage to do what you did. Heroes walk among us who truly deserve to be called Heroes.
The last reunion? In Jerusalem, Greek WWII rescuer, 92, meets the Jews she saved
‘Now I can die quietly,’ says Melpomeni Dina, as she unites with the dozens of descendants of the Mordechai family, in what may be the last-ever meeting of its kind
AP — One by one, the 40 descendants of a group of Israeli siblings leaned down and hugged the elderly Greek woman to whom they owe their very existence, as she sat in her wheelchair and wiped away tears streaking down her wrinkled face.
Clutching the hands of those she hid, fed and protected as a teenager more than 75 years ago, 92-year-old Melpomeni Dina said she could now “die quietly.”
Sunday’s emotional encounter in Jerusalem was the first time Dina had met the offspring of the Mordechai family she helped save during the Holocaust. Once a regular ritual at Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, such gatherings are rapidly dwindling due to the advanced ages of both survivors and rescuers and may not happen again. The soon-to-be-extinct reunion is the latest reminder for Holocaust commemorators preparing for a post-survivor world.
Greek World War II rescuer Melpomeni Dina (C) reacts as she is reunited with holocaust survivors Yossi Mor (R) and his sister Sarah Yanai, whom she helped escape in 1943, at the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem on November 3, 2019. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)
“The risk they took upon themselves to take in an entire family, knowing that it put them and everyone around them in danger,” said Sarah Yanai, today 86, who was the oldest of the five siblings Dina and others sheltered. “Look at all these around us. We are now a very large and happy family and it is all thanks to them saving us.”
About six million European Jews were killed by German Nazis and their collaborators during World War II. More than 27,000 people, including some 355 from Greece, have been recognized as “Righteous Among the Nations,” Israel’s highest honor to those non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust.
Greek World War II rescuer Melpomeni Dina (C) poses for a group photo with holocaust survivors Yossi Mor (C-L) and his sister Sarah Yanai (C-R), whom she helped escape in 1943, along with their descendants at the Hall of Names at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial museum in Jerusalem on November 3, 2019. (Photo by Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP)
The most famous cases are Oskar Schindler, whose efforts to save more than 1,000 Jews were documented in Steven Spielberg’s 1993 film “Schindler’s List,” and Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish diplomat who is credited for having saved at least 20,000 Jews before mysteriously disappearing.
The names of those honored for refusing to be indifferent to the genocide are engraved along an avenue of trees at the Jerusalem memorial. Only a few hundred are believed to still be alive.
“This is probably going to be our last reunion, because of age and frailty,” said Stanlee Stahl, the executive vice president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, which sponsored the event and which provides $1 million a year in monthly stipends to those recognized.
She said her organization has been doing such reunions every year since 1992, but this one was likely the last of its kind and therefore particularly emotional. Similar reunions sponsored by Yad Vashem of long-lost siblings or other relatives also are coming to an end.
“Either the survivor has passed on, the righteous has passed on or in some instances either the survivor or the righteous gentile is unable to travel,” she said, choking up. “You see the survivors, their children, their grandchildren, you see the future. To me it is very, very, very special. In a way, a door closes, one opens. The door is closing ever so slowly on the reunions.”
The Mordechai family lived in Veria, Greece, near Thessaloniki, where nearly the entire Jewish community was annihilated within a few months, in one of the most brutal executions by the Nazis.
When the Nazis began rounding up the Jews for deportation in early 1943, the family’s non-Jewish friends provided them with fake identity cards and hid them in the attic of the old abandoned Turkish mosque. They were there for almost a year, hearing the screams outside of other Jews being rounded up. But, eventually, they had to leave because their health was declining in the cramped, unventilated attic.
That is when Dina and her two older sisters took the family of seven into their own single-room home on the outskirts of the city, sharing with them their meager food rations. One of the children, a 6-year-old boy named Shmuel, became gravely ill and had to be taken to a hospital, despite the risk of exposing his identity. He died there.
Shortly after that, the family was informed upon, and Dina’s sisters and their relatives helped them flee in various directions.
Yanai, the oldest, headed for the woods; another went to the mountains; and the mother headed out on foot with her youngest two surviving children, in search of another hiding spot. Dina and her orphaned and impoverished sisters provided them with clothing before their departure. The family reunited after liberation and made its way to Israel, where the children built families of their own.
Yossi Mor, today 77, was just an infant when his family was taken in, but he said he could still remember a few things, such as when his older brother died and the kindness they encountered from their rescuers — who gave them various forms of refuge for nearly two years.
“They fed us, they gave us medicine, they gave us the protection, everything, they washed our clothes,” he said, before gesturing toward Dina. “She loved me very much.”
Mor and Yanai had gotten together with Dina in Greece years ago. But the younger generation of their extended family, which included grade-school children in pigtails and soldiers in uniform, had never met her before Sunday’s ceremony. The two soldiers proudly pushed Dina and Yanai throughout the complex in their wheelchairs.
A special committee, chaired by a retired Supreme Court Justice, is responsible for vetting every case of “Righteous Among the Nations,” before awarding the title. Following a lengthy process, between 400 and 500 are typically recognized a year and the process will continue and new stories come to light, even for those awarded posthumously, said Joel Zisenwise, the director of the department at Yad Vashem.
“What we see here is moving in the sense that we have evidence of an ongoing relationship of the rescuers with the survivors and the descendants. It is an ongoing form of paying tribute,” he said. “It definitely is moving to see these families coming together knowing that they may indeed be one of the last meetings.”
