The Depasta family and Takis Zouridis

We were in hiding already when the Germans came; we were staying in Athens.

This here is the family that helped us hide in Athens, their name was Depasta, and Takis Zaroudis. The photo was taken in Athens in 1943.

We stayed in a house on Solonos Street for a while, up until the Italians had to surrender.

When the Italians lost power things became totally different and the German Occupation started in September 1943. Then we decided that again something had to be done.

It was then that another of my father's friends appeared, Takis Zouridis. In one’s life, if one is a good person well respected and loved by his/her friends then one has no fear; the most important thing one possesses is his/her friendships!

So this man arrived, a friend my father had helped back in Thessaloniki through a tough period in his own life. You see, my father was very generous and everyone that knew him well enough called him Charles.

This friend then goes, ‘Charles, I still haven’t thought of what you and your son are going to do but your wife and sister-in-law I will take with me to my sister’s house, in Kalithea.’

My mother Mathilda and her sister Sarah stayed in Athens, and my father and I were sent to Leivadia where there was a plain, the Copaida plain. It was through the Resistance that we were sent up there.