Greek Peoples' Liberational Army (ELAS) discharge paper
My grandfather's discharge paper from ELAS (Greek Peoples' Liberational Army), the partisan army of EAM (National Liberational Front), during the years of occupation of Greece.
My grandfather, Athanasios Popes, was known by the nom-de-guerre “Pateras” after the homonymous mountain in Attica. He joined the “Reserve” ELAS in July 1943, aged 21, and the “Active” ELAS as a light machine gun gunner in May 1944. Judging from his later unit, he must have joined the ranks of the 5th Brigade, which was reorganized to the II Division in September 1944. The II Division was active in the areas of Attica and Viotia (most notably in the Battle of Karutes, against the SS-Polizei Gebirgsjaeger Regiment 18) and later took part in the Battle of Athens in December 1944. He served in the 1st Battalion of the 34th Regiment of the Division, which saw action in the areas of ”Sotiria” hospital and hotel “Cecil”, where the RAF HQ was located and captured.
The discharge paper is signed by the “Kapetanios” of I/34, Georgios Boutsinis, nom-de-guerre “Nikitas”, who would later author “Guerilla Warfare in Attica” (Neocosmos, Athens, 1979). It is signed on February 22, 1945, after the Treaty of Varkiza, which regulated -among others- the disbanding of ELAS. Not many discharge papers survive, because after their defeat in the Battle of Athens and the Civil War, combattants who had fought in the ranks of ELAS, the Democratic Army and members of the Communist Party were liable to imprisonment, exile and even execution; as a result, such documents tended to be destroyed.
This particular document was kept hidden by his sister from 1947 to 1982, at which point the state recognised the left-wing Resistance groups, offering a pension to surviving combattants. He recovered the document from his sister and kept it, but declined the pension, saying that he had not fought during the war out of mercenary motives, but rather acting out of what he felt to be his duty.He was posthumously awarded the National Resistance medal.
My grandfather, Athanasios Popes, was known by the nom-de-guerre “Pateras” after the homonymous mountain in Attica. He joined the “Reserve” ELAS in July 1943, aged 21, and the “Active” ELAS as a light machine gun gunner in May 1944. Judging from his later unit, he must have joined the ranks of the 5th Brigade, which was reorganized to the II Division in September 1944. The II Division was active in the areas of Attica and Viotia (most notably in the Battle of Karutes, against the SS-Polizei Gebirgsjaeger Regiment 18) and later took part in the Battle of Athens in December 1944. He served in the 1st Battalion of the 34th Regiment of the Division, which saw action in the areas of ”Sotiria” hospital and hotel “Cecil”, where the RAF HQ was located and captured.
The discharge paper is signed by the “Kapetanios” of I/34, Georgios Boutsinis, nom-de-guerre “Nikitas”, who would later author “Guerilla Warfare in Attica” (Neocosmos, Athens, 1979). It is signed on February 22, 1945, after the Treaty of Varkiza, which regulated -among others- the disbanding of ELAS. Not many discharge papers survive, because after their defeat in the Battle of Athens and the Civil War, combattants who had fought in the ranks of ELAS, the Democratic Army and members of the Communist Party were liable to imprisonment, exile and even execution; as a result, such documents tended to be destroyed.
This particular document was kept hidden by his sister from 1947 to 1982, at which point the state recognised the left-wing Resistance groups, offering a pension to surviving combattants. He recovered the document from his sister and kept it, but declined the pension, saying that he had not fought during the war out of mercenary motives, but rather acting out of what he felt to be his duty.He was posthumously awarded the National Resistance medal.
This photo, found on "Contemporary Social History Archives", pictures men of the I/34 Regiment and a Breda LMG gunner who is in all probability my grandfather.