Georgios Petrakis (Greek : Γεώργιος Πετράκης; 1890 – 1972), better known as Petrakogiorgis (also transliterated as Petrakoyiorgis, Petrakoyeorgis, Greek : Πετρακογιώργης), was a Greek businessman, partisan, and politician. He was a leading figure in the Cretan resistance of the years 1941 – 1944 against the Axis occupation forces, well respected for his patriotism, courage, honesty, perspicacity and selflessness. [1]
Petrakogiorgis was born in the village of Magarikari, Mesara Plain, Crete, which was then part of the Ottoman Empire. His parents were Emmanuel Petrakis and Antiope Papastefanaki. Petrakogiorgis fought as an officer in the Asia Minor Campaign, after the end of which he worked as a merchant of agricultural products and owned an olive oil mill and a soap factory.
Aged around 50 when the war broke out, Petrakogiorgis was too old to be called up. Nevertheless, he was one of the regional leaders recruited by John Pendlebury in his effort to organize a system of defense before the German invasion of Crete. Shortly after Crete fell to the Germans in late May 1941, many resistance organisations were formed across the island. Petrakogiorgis, who had already fought in the Battle of Crete and lost his eldest son Manolis during its course, swore in his first men during June 1941, near Kamares. Having evacuated the rest of his family to the safety of the Middle East, he devoted himself whole-heartedly to the fight for liberation. Being pro-British, Petrakogiorgis had close ties with EOK and SOE. [2] He had the code-name Selfridge because, in Beevor's words, "his olive mill was Crete's closest approximation to big business". [2]
Petrakogiorgis' group, named "Psiloritis", was active in the regions of Mt. Ida, the Mesara Plain, Mt. Kedros, and the Amari Valley, and was often engaged in close combat with the occupation forces. He and his men fought in fierce battles in the region, such that at Papa to Perama (Παπά το Πέραμα), Kouroupitos (Κουρουπητός), Koutsounares (Κουτσουνάρες), Poros Stavrou (Πόρος Σταυρού), Trahili (Τραχήλι) and Madari (Μαδαρή). [3] They also conducted several sabotage operations, smuggled men and equipment, and participated in the abduction of General Heinrich Kreipe. These activities allowed Petrakogiorgis to demonstrate his leadership and military skills, earning himself the nickname "the eagle of Psiloritis". Yet they also provoked German reprisals: execution of civilians, confiscation of Petrakogiorgis' personal property, and destruction of villages (Magarikari, Kamares, Lochria). The worst of these was the destruction of (el) Vorizia by heavy aerial bombardment. [4]
On 11 October 1944, the day Heraklion was liberated, Petrakogiorgis entered the city triumphantly. He was appointed commander of its garrison and held that post till the beginning of 1945. He later entered politics and was elected member of the Greek Parliament with the Liberal Party, led by Sofoklis Venizelos, in the 1946, 1950, 1951, and 1952 elections. Petrakogiorgis was decorated several times by the Allies and represented Greece in several resistance fighter assemblies.
In 1950, Petrakogiorgis' third daughter Tassoula was 'eloped' by Kostas Kefalogiannis. [5] [6] Kefalogiannis had also taken part in the Resistance whereas his brother Manolis was a member of Parliament with Petrakogiorgis' political opponents, the conservative People's Party. Petrakogiorgis felt insulted by this act and, as a result, the population of Crete divided into two rival camps. Fear of an imminent armed clash led to the suspension of a number of sections of the Greek constitution in the Prefectures of Heraklion and Rethymnon, [7] the declaration of the Psiloritis mountains as a forbidden zone and the deployment of more than 2,000 troops and gendarmerie to ensure order. The incident involved the top-level military, political and religious leadership of Greece and attracted strong international press attention. [8]
Petrakogiorgis died in Heraklion on 14 September 1972. In 2009, a bronze statue was erected near Magarikari in his honor.
Nikos Xylouris, Cretan nickname: Psaronikos (Ψαρονίκος), was a Greek singer, Cretan Lyra player and composer. Xylouris' music encompassed both rural traditional and urban orchestral music, and he has been referred to by the honorific moniker Archangel of Crete.
George Psychoundakis BEM was a member of the Greek Resistance on Crete during the Second World War and after the war an author. Following the German invasion, between 1941 and 1945, he served as the dispatch runner for the Special Operations Executive (SOE) operations on Crete, as part of the Cretan resistance. During the postwar years he was at first mistakenly imprisoned as a deserter. While in prison he wrote his wartime memoirs, which were published as The Cretan Runner. Later he translated key classical Greek texts into the Cretan dialect.
Meletius, was primate of the Church of Greece from 1918 to 1920 as Meletius III, after which he was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople as Meletius IV from 1921 to 1923 and Greek Patriarch of Alexandria as Meletius II from 1926 to 1935. He is the only man in the history of the Eastern Orthodox Church to serve successively as the senior bishop of three autocephalous churches.
The Cretan resistance was a resistance movement against the occupying forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy by the residents of the Greek island of Crete during World War II. Part of the larger Greek resistance, it lasted from 20 May 1941, when the German Wehrmacht invaded the island in the Battle of Crete, until the spring of 1945 when they surrendered to the British. For the first time during World War II, attacking German forces faced in Crete a substantial resistance from the local population. In the Battle of Crete, Cretan civilians picked off paratroopers or attacked them with knives, axes, scythes, or even bare hands. As a result, many casualties were inflicted upon the invading German paratroopers during the battle.
Friedrich "Fritz" Schubert was a Greek-speaking German NCO Oberfeldwebel (Sergeant) of the Nazi Wehrmacht. As head of the Jagdkommando Schubert, a semi-independent paramilitary force he terrorized the civilian population during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II and he committed numerous atrocities in Crete and Macedonia.
The Damasta sabotage was an attack by Cretan resistance fighters led by British Special Operations Executive officer Captain Bill Stanley Moss MC against German occupation forces in World War II. The attack occurred on 8 August 1944 near the village of Damasta and was aimed at preventing the Germans assaulting the village of Anogeia.
The Viannos massacres were a mass extermination campaign launched by German forces against the civilian residents of around 20 villages located in the areas of east Viannos and west Ierapetra provinces on the Greek island of Crete during World War II. The killings, with a death toll in excess of 500, were carried out on 14–16 September 1943 by Wehrmacht units. They were accompanied by the burning of most villages, looting, and the destruction of harvests.
The Holocaust of Kedros, also known as the Holocaust of Amari, was the mass murder of the civilian residents of nine villages located in the Amari Valley on the Greek island of Crete during its occupation by the Axis powers in World War II. The massacre was a reprisal operation mounted by Nazi German forces.
Agathangelos Xirouchakis was a Greek Orthodox cleric and historian from Crete.
Manolis or Emmanouil Paterakis was a member of the Cretan resistance during World War II, who lived in the village of Koustogerako in the then-province of Selino. In English language sources, he also appears as Manoli Paterakis.
The Burnings of Kali Sykia is one of many atrocities perpetrated in Greece by Fritz Schubert and his people during the Nazi occupation of Greece in World War II. On October 6, 1943, 13 individuals were killed by being burned alive in the mountainous village of Kali Sykia, in Rethymno, Crete.
The Razing of Anogeia or the Holocaust of Anogeia refers to the complete destruction of the village of Anogeia in central Crete (Greece) and the murder of about 25 of its inhabitants on 13 August 1944 by German occupying forces during World War II. This was the third time Anogeia was destroyed, as the Ottomans had destroyed it twice; first in July 1822 and again in November 1867, during the Great Cretan Revolt.
The razing of Vorizia refers to the destruction of the village of Vorizia (Βορίζια) in Crete (Greece) by aerial bombardment and the murder of five of its inhabitants on 27 August 1943 by German occupying forces during World War II.
The Battle of Trahili was fought on 15 August 1943 between Cretan partisans and German occupying forces during World War II. It took place near the village of Vorizia in south-central Crete, when German forces attempted to surround a small group of partisans led by the local chieftain Petrakogiorgis. Most of the partisans managed to escape, despite being heavily outnumbered.
Kimonas or Kimon Zografakis, frequently referred to by his nom de guerre, Black Man, was a distinguished Greek partisan in the Cretan resistance from 1941 to 1944 against the Axis occupation forces.
Emmanuel Mormoris, Manolis Mormoris or Manoli Mormori was a 16th-century Cretan military commander and notable political figure in the Republic of Venice. He was the military commander of an Anti-Ottoman revolt at the time of the Ottoman-Venetian War of 1570-1573.
The Kallikratis executions refer to the mass execution, by German Army and Greek collaborationist paramilitary forces, of some 30 mostly male civilians of Kallikratis, in southwest Crete, on 8 October 1943. Kallikratis was declared a martyred village in October 2018.
The Supreme Committee of Cretan Struggle was a resistance organization founded in Crete in June 1941. It was the first armed resistance organization founded in Greece after its occupation by the Axis powers and was a precursor to the National Organization of Crete (EOK).
Andreas Polentas was a Greek partisan executed by the Germans during the Axis occupation of Greece in World War II.
The Skourvoula executions refer to the mass execution by firing squad of 36 civilians, of which 22 were women, at the village of Skourvoula in Crete, Greece by German Wehrmacht forces on 14 August 1944 during World War II.
