Thessaloniki: The invisible women in the anti-dictatorship struggle, through narratives – Torture, military courts, prisons
Light is shed on the invisible women of the anti-dictatorship struggle at the first event of honor and memory, of the Urban Non-Profit Society “Friends of the Memory of the Anti-dictatorship Resistance 1967-1974 in Thessaloniki”.
The event will take place on Saturday, October 1, 2022, 7:30 p.m., in the courtyard of the War Museum of Thessaloniki.
The event is a preliminary presentation of a large program planned by the Company – since its foundation in October 2021 – with the aim of recording various parameters of the anti-dictatorship struggle and especially digital interviews with women who struggle in many different ways from Thessaloniki, Macedonia and if funds are available from other regions of the country.
At the event, reference will be made to women arrested by the dictatorial regime, held in deplorable conditionsto those who were tortured, court-martialed and imprisoned, but the focus of the Society’s research is on the invisible women.
A treasure from the depths of the history of Thessaloniki
The common characteristic of these women, as the president of the Society of Friends of the Memorial Christos Zafeiris reports to APE-MBE, was “faith in the struggle, not out of any interest. These invisible women are characterized by two basic elements: democracy and dignity. Especially dignity, they mention it a lot in the interviews.”
The company’s goal is to be recorded 40 interviews and of the 15 or so that have taken place to date, the interesting fact emerges, according to Mr. Zafeiris, that women are not particularly willing to speak, not out of reticence, but because they did not consider what they were doing important.
“They felt they were just doing their duty, and their testimony is an excellent historical and sociological testimony. But when they are convinced and start talking, a treasure emerges from the depths of history and it would be a shame not to record these testimonies”, says Mr. Zafeiris.
The pemba diary
The bleakness, violence and pain experienced by these women is vividly recorded in “Bemba’s Diary”, a manuscript in the Society’s archive, in which a mother from Thessaloniki, her husband who was imprisoned, keeps. notes from her daily life, through the eyes of her young daughter, which she called “Bemba’s diary”.
Excerpts from the diary will be read at the event. “In addition to recording the living testimonies, we are looking to anthologize, in a digital archive, as many printed testimonies as we can, which are related to women’s resistance”, says Mr. Zafeiris.
Mom came from exile without… the bike
One of the most touching stories conveyed by the president of the Society of Friends of the Memorial, concerns a letter written by a mother to her young son, from exile. She promised him that when he returns from the “excursion”, he also brings a bicycle.
“When he returned, Voulis, as they called the little one, was playing in the neighborhood. He came into the house and didn’t hug her or anything. “Mom where’s the bike,” he just asked her. The gift was waiting…”, says Mr. Zafeiris, highlighting the burden these women carried to keep the children’s psyche. “All these feelings, all these images are important to capture. Let this contribution of these women be honored as well”, he explains.
Evidence of gender-based violence
One of the elements that the Society wants to highlight is that of gender-based violence. “Other elements such as combativeness, solidarity, camaraderie, struggle have emerged, but not the fact that women were accepted because of their gender and not only for their participation in anti-Junta organizations,” Mr. Zafeiris emphasizes.
This is a parameter, which has not been recorded enough and is now emerging through the program designed by the Society of Friends of Memory Space.
Women hostage
At the October 1st event, there will be a mention of a special category that has also not been studied to date, the “hostage women”.
These are those women who are related to wanted resistance fighters or exiles, they are arrested for weeks or months, they may even reach the court martial, and they act as “hostages”, in order to pressure or force the persecuted to surrender and the exiles , to sign a “declaration of repentance” to the regime.
The program of the event
At the event, Anna Michou, vice-president of the Society of Friends of the Space of Memory, will speak on the topic “The multifaceted contribution of women to the anti-dictatorship resistance” and Anastasia Zisi, professor at the Department of Sociology, University of the Aegean with the subject of Community and Mental Health, on the topic “For Democracy and Dignity. Women fighters of Thessaloniki against the junta”.
The Greeting will be addressed by the president of the Society of Friends of the Memory Area Christos Zafeiris, the president of the Association of Imprisoned and Exiled Resistance Fighters 1967-1974 (SFEA) Vangelis Giougis and the Secretary of Demographic and Family Policy.
It will be followed by a concert with Panagiotis Karadimitris, Elsa Mouratidou and Costas Pratsinakis singing and the musicians Sakis Kontonikolas (piano), Stathis Savvidis (bouzouki) and Yiannis Filippoupolitis (piano).
The Memorial Exhibition Space, with documents, photographs and informative texts from the anti-dictatorship resistance in Thessaloniki, is housed in the War Museum of Thessaloniki, whose building, during the dictatorship, was a hell of interrogations and torture for many players by the organs of the dictatorial regime.
In this area, the leading member of the anti-dictatorship organization Patriotic Anti-dictatorship Front (PAM) and former left-wing MP Giorgis Tsarouhas breathed his last from the torture he suffered.
The Memorial Space has been operating since May 2017 under the auspices of the Association of Imprisoned and Exiled Resistance Fighters (1967-1974). The museum exhibition is open during the opening hours of the War Museum.
The Sponsors of the event are the Municipalities of Thessaloniki and Neapolis-Sykeon and ERT.