Konstantinos Konstantinidis – Amphiktyon
I was shaken by the photographs —
dramatic,
with heroic figures
in the yard of the Shooting Range.
Without cause.
Without trial.
Crimes that will weigh
upon the Germans forever.
I call them authentic,
genuine,
proof of heinous criminals.
Most precious.
They will speak the hidden Truth
so that, at last, the lies may end
and the Truth may shine.
War Reparations are not a fairy tale.
Most homes were blood-stained.
I lived the madness,
the blood and the agony.
The Occupation — a hell that does not fade.
I remember it as if it were yesterday.
On the Sacred Way.
I saw the convoy descending.
And from the trucks —
a stentorian voice.
Men condemned to death.
On their way to execution.
Lying in the truck beds,
bound like parcels.
Guards standing upright,
bayonets fixed.
And they were singing.
And singing.
Resistance marching songs
that were heard in Aigaleo,
in every neighborhood.
A voice that even now,
almost a century later,
shakes me.
I did not see faces.
But I saw bravery.
Calm before death.
A serene gaze.
Their final battle — victorious.
In Distomo,
in Kerdylia,
in Kandanos,
in the mountains of Trifylia —
holocausts.
Villages burned.
Women in black.
Children orphaned.
And my mother —
five children,
without a home,
without bread
in occupied Athens.
Hunger.
Famine.
Misery.
The crimes remained silent.
Covered over.
Forgotten.
But a crime,
if it is not judged,
haunts.
Festers.
It does not fade.
Now the photographs
demand Justice.
“Justice, our sons,”
whisper the executed.
Genocides
do not vanish through denial.
They create tempests through the ages.
The photographs and the Furies
will judge.
As long as the Trial is pending
hatred swells.
And only when Justice comes
will be restored
friendship,
alliance,
peace.
(21/2/26)
Amphiktyon – Major General (ret.) Konstantinos Konstantinidis
Συγγραφέας, Μέλος της Εταιρείας Ελλήνων Λογοτεχνών
http://www.amphiktyon.blogspot.comamphiktyon.org