Kapelis- The Hatmaker

by Andreas Kappa

During this new regime, many judges resigned or allegedly retired and a new pro-monarch judiciary was put in place rapidly by the king to ensure legal sanitation and control of the judiciary.

  Andreas became worried about his position with the firm. He discussed this concern with Ourania, who gave him comforting words.

  On St Andrew’s Day on 30 November 1935, Konstantinos Demertzis became prime minister of Greece. Demertzis came to power to head a caretaker government and then the head of a compromised government after the 1936 election in Greece that was deadlocked.

  In the first six months, he was in office before his early death in April 1936; he swiftly began to audit politicians, judges, teachers, lawyers, doctors, journalists, and other professionals that could negatively impact his government and the return of the king in Greece.

  In late 1935, the managing partner of the firm came into the office of Andreas and said, ‘Andreas, I have a meeting with the minister for shipping tomorrow, involving an international shipping dispute with one of our vessels and a British stevedoring company in London. I trust your experience and judgment in these matters, and I want you present.’

  Andreas and the managing partner attended the meeting the next day. Present were the minister and his advisers, and without notice, the prime minister was present, Demertzis, as the matter involved the home secretary of Britain and matters of the state.

  The men were introduced and greeted one another.

  ‘Mr Kapelis,’ said the Prime Minister in a voice showing familiarity, ‘you are doing well, I understand, and now you are here to act for Greece in this matter.’

  Andreas said, ‘Yes, Prime Minister.’ He did not know where the path was headed.

  The Prime Minister said, ‘You recall at university when I asked you about your political beliefs and you responded with an ancient maxim. Then you refused to answer. Well, as your prime minister, I will now ask you again. Are you politically left or right wing and loyal to the king?’

  Andreas responded, ‘I am here to serve you and my country as a lawyer. I will do so with ethics and integrity. In politics, an eagle does not die like a chicken.’

  The managing partner looked nervous at the exchange, his response, and the tense feeling in the room during this discussion.

  Despite tactful protests by the managing partner to those present at the meeting, the prime minister brought a premature end to the meeting by walking out and demanding that the minister and his advisers leave with him.

  In the corridors leading out from the meeting room, the prime minister could just be heard saying that the young man was a traitor and smart-arse and that he wanted him out. The managing partner was ashen-faced and almost trembling.

  The next day at work, an official came to the office and went directly into the office of the managing partner. Andreas was sitting nervously in his office, unable to focus on his work.

  At lunchtime that day, the partners invited Andreas into the boardroom of the firm.

  The managing partner said, ‘Several clients have complained about the quality of your work and your excessive billing. We have resolved to terminate your employment. Your pay is here. Please check it. Please leave immediately, and we wish you well in the future.’

  Andreas took his pay and left as requested. He wandered the streets of Athens for hours before he went home to tell his wife.

  Ourania was philosophical about the news, as she knew Andreas was a competent lawyer. ‘We have enough in savings to see us through. Go look for a new job tomorrow,’ said Ourania.

  The children gathered at their father’s feet for kisses and hugs, and Andreas looked at them with bleakness.

  Christmas passed then the New Year. Between January and June 1936, Andreas pounded the streets of Athens, knocking from door to door, looking for work as a lawyer.

  After potential employers had contacted his former firm, Andreas would receive rejection after rejection. In desperation, Andreas contacted Aristos at the Dunhill store for work.

  After a few days, Aristos contacted Andreas and said, ‘Dunhill said to employ you despite the politics of Athens. I advised the firm in London against employing you as it would kill the business. These people that hate you are our biggest customers. You understand, my dearest friend. It is not personal.’

  The political and social situation in Greece was in complete disarray. No one could be trusted. Andreas attempted to recommence his hat-making business. He could not sell to Dunhill, and he was selling less than one hat weekly.

  He turned to Ourania at the end of the summer of 1936 and said, ‘Ourania, the money is fast running out, and I cannot find any employment in my profession or otherwise. We need to take a drastic step for our children.’

  Ourania said, ‘Whatever you think is best I will follow.’

  Andreas said, ‘We will return to the village. I will see if there is paternal land in the village to build a home for us and return to the land to grow produce. That way, at least the children will be fed, and we will be safe from harm.’

  Ourania said, ‘I agree with you. Athens has now become a treacherous place to live in and bring up children.’

  _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

  VROSTENA, 1936-1946 (WORLD WAR II)

  After discussing his plan, the family packed up their possessions and placed their belongings on to a horse-drawn carriage and left for Vrostena. Once they had arrived, the family lived in the paternal home.

  Andreas, with the help of carpenters and workers, began building a cement home on a piece of land given to him by his father, replacing the wooden cabin. The project was funded by money Andreas had saved whilst working in Athens.

  The home was completed. It had four bedrooms and a veranda that overlooked the mountains and the Corinthian Sea in the distance. It had an open area under the house for wines, oil, and other goods and farm equipment, like scarifiers for ploughing the land.

  Kostas Kapelis was ninety-four years old and confined to the house because of his age. His faculties were intact, but his body had faded away. Kostas and Andreas spent time together, discussing his time in Athens.

  Kostas simply said to his son, ‘In Greece, my boy, we never learn. History just continues to repeat itself, to the detriment of its people.’

  In early 1937, Kostas Kapelis died at the age of ninety-four. He was buried in the cemetery next to St Nicholas Church.

  In mid 1937, Ourania gave birth to a girl, whom they named Vasiliki after her mother. The couple had now established a household and had chickens, goats, sheep, and sowed the land with olive trees, cherry trees, tobacco, currants, raisins, and grapes for eating and for wine.

  Andreas also tended to the lands already established by his father. As far as food was concerned, the family was well nourished. They were poor but never hungry.

  When they reached school age, the children were placed in the local school, which had survived time. This was the school that had educated Andreas in his early life.

  Andreas continued his one luxury of obtaining the papers from Athens to keep up with the activities in the capital. There was a general malaise and apathy among the people of Athens.

  Andreas and his family and the village folk were, to a large extent, insulated from the politics of Greece.

  Andreas read in the papers that there were several deaths of high-ranking politicians and dignitaries that were described as accidents or sickness. Andreas knew that these deaths were deliberate and cold-hearted assassinations ordered by the king or monarchists sympathetic to the king.

  Andreas discussed these matters at the coffee lounge amongst the men or at home with Ourania. She said, ‘If you sit down with a lame man, you will learn to limp.’

  Andreas sold his produce at the main town of Kalavryta, where the revolution started. He would load his mule with produce on either side of the saddle and attend the market in the town square.


  He would pass the Mega Spileo monastery and light a candle in thanks for the health of his children and his life.

  Mega Spileo was a monastery built in AD 326 upon the side of a mountain. It was the oldest monastery in Orthodoxy.

  Everyone from the surrounding villages who had produce to sell or wares would attend the weekly markets in Kalavryta.

  There was also a train, called the dondoto (the teeth train), that was built in the late nineteenth century. The train would climb from the seaside town of Diakofto and weave its way up the mountain through the grand Vouraikos Gorge and finally stop at Kalavryta, using ‘teeth’ beneath the train to climb the mountain.

  Andreas was elected town mayor in 1938 because of his education, knowledge of the town, and his popularity. He was paid a small civic salary for this position, adding to his family’s income.

  As part of his duties as mayor, Andreas was the custodian of the records of births, deaths, and marriages and a list of men eighteen years of age and over who could serve in the military.

  He would also deal with taxation, court cases and results, and payment of compensation for damages to produce and harvest by untied animals.

  There were many cases where an untied donkey or mule would enter land and cause damage to vineyard or orchards. The owner of the animals would be prosecuted and ordered to pay damages.

  As there had been another change in prime ministers, the idea from Athens was to decentralize law and justice. With that came the formation of county or district courts brought into existence to ease the pressure of delays in the Athenian courts.

  The Justice Department in Athens requested Andreas to act as a part-time, acting county court judge for Vrostena and the surrounding villages. The Justice Department had not been advised of Andreas’s past, as it had escaped the bureaucracy between departments.

  There was a permanent judge appointed in Kalavryta because of its size. There were acting judges like Andreas appointed in Diakofto by the sea.

  The judges were given power to reside over all civil disputes, like contracts and damages claims and criminal matters with penalties and sentences not exceeding two years in jail.

  Both Patras and Kalavryta had jails to house any prisoners serving sentences. There would be a meeting every month in Aegion of all judicial officers to discuss matters before them and the outcome in order to report back to Justice Department in Athens.

  Andreas enjoyed his role as mayor, part-time judicial officer, and agrarian in his village. The family seemed happy and had adjusted to family life in the village.

  During one of the monthly meetings in Aegion of the judges, a new judge had been appointed from northern Greece by the name of Stavros Kalapaseas, a lawyer trained in Thessaloniki. Stavros was a year older than Andreas, born in 1899.

  It was late 1938. The country had been driven by a pro-monarchist general, Metaxas, who enjoyed the king’s favour and subdued any anti-monarch sentiment. He did the bidding of a pro-British position given the king’s desirability for the British monarchy.

  Nothing changed in the village. Both the judges and the people of the villages were advised that a leader by the name of Adolf Hitler of Germany was in control of Germany under a dictatorial regime and Benito Mussolini was the fascist ruler of Italy. War was looming again at the northern borders of Greece.

  Andreas spoke to the townsfolk as their mayor. He gathered all the men in the town square. He announced to them that he intended to produce two sets of books.

  The one set would be an accurate account of all the dealings and complete records of the village relevant to its bureaucracy and headcount of the men over eighteen years of age. That book would be in a safe and hidden place at his home.

  The second book he would create would be a false record of account, eliminating the men’s names to protect the men from conscription, identification, and audit if a foreign power was to occupy Greece.

  The men all agreed that the idea was a clever plan. Andreas wanted to keep his fellow countrymen safe from harm. He told them the only name that would appear on the false record would be his name.

  By 1940, despite the declaration of neutrality by Greece to involve itself in any war, Italy destroyed ships and commenced with forces towards the northern borders of Greece. On 28 October, 1940 Italian forces crossed Greece’s borders.

  This was a declaration of war.

  The Italians demanded that the Greeks concede occupation by Italy. The laconic answer without any further discussion was ‘Oxi’ (no).

  Greece’s forces were resilient and pounded the Italian forces, keeping at bay the invasion of Italy for over two hundred and fifty days—the greatest ground resistance of any European country during World War II.

  The inability of Italy to defeat Greece’s military and the obvious losses irritated Berlin. Germany had to act and act with haste. Italy’s military failure was interfering with the Nazis’ plan of heading east towards Russia.

  At this time, Andreas had another son whom he called Spiros. Andreas now had six children to feed. His mayoral and judicial salary had been cut to apply funds to Greece’s war chest, and selling produce when people had no money was becoming impossible. A barter system in the villages was now replacing money.

  The country was at a standstill, and there was growing uncertainty. German forces now strengthened the Italian forces and occupied the north of Greece. There was obvious terror in Greece.

  By April 1941, the German and Italian forces marched towards Athens, taking prisoners and shooting everyone resisting their occupation. By late May 1941, the Germans had occupied Greece, and the country came under German control.

  Japan bombed Pearl Harbour, forcing the United States of America to join the Allies.

  A German captain came to the village during their southern march to Kalavryta. A platoon of Germans was nearby. He was a commander in the infantry, wearing a dark-green collar and shoulder straps with white Waffenfarbe, the Litzen collar insignia, and the Wehrmachtsadler above the right breast pocket.

  He was a Nazi. He demanded to speak to the village leader.

  Andreas advised him that he was the leader in Greek as he came forward.

  The German captain said in English, ‘Do you speak English?’

  Andreas said in English, ‘Yes.’

  He said, ‘We are now in control. Anyone against that will be shot. Do you understand?’

  Andreas said, ‘Yes.’

  He said, ‘Inform them what I have told you.’

  Andreas said, ‘Yes.’

  He said, ‘Give me all your records.’

  Andreas went to the school, where the false records were kept, and returned to the German captain. He handed him the false records.

  The German captain said, ‘I am leaving ten men and a sergeant here in control of the village, and you will do what he directs you to do.’

  Andreas said, ‘Yes.’

  The German captain then left, leaving ten men behind and a troop commander. Supplies and entry of produce had been cut by the Germans to punish the Greeks for the resistance at the northern border. The Germans took possession of everything.

  The result was that there was great famine and pestilence of diseases in the main cities, like Athens, Patras, and Thessaloniki. With no food, the cities perished. Hundreds of thousands died.

  Ourania said to Andreas, ‘God was looking after us.’

  Andreas, with other things on his mind, said, ‘What do you mean?’

  Ourania said, ‘Had we been in Athens and you were working as a lawyer, our family would have perished during this famine. You cannot eat cement. At the very least, we have food from our animals and chickens, and we have our produce. We will survive.’

  During this national calamity, the king of Greece had deserted his country by going to Crete then Egypt to create an exiled government.

  Des
pite the despair, resistance fighters were gathering in the mountains to form nests of guerrillas to fight the Germans. The Peloponnese again, and given its previous history of fighting occupiers, had called to arms many men.

  The Nazi were targeting the Jews. Hitler made his intentions clear. He wanted a final solution to the existence of Jews worldwide.

  As Orthodox Christians, Andreas and his family found the whole concept repulsive, as it offended Christianity.

  Word was coming from Athens that, in Thessaloniki, where the Jews had lived in harmony as Greeks since ancient times and their mass migration during the Spanish Inquisition, these innocent souls were being imprisoned and transferred to concentration camps in greater Germany or simply summarily shot.

  The majority was transported to the Auschwitz death camp on a long journey, packed in boxcars like sardines from Thessaloniki.

  One night in November 1942, there was a knock on Andreas’s door. Ourania opened the door and welcomed the man into the warm entrance. A very thin man in army fatigue asked to speak to Andreas.

  Andreas said, ‘I am Andreas. Who are you?’

  He said, ‘My name is Marios Panopoulos, leader of the resistance in this area. May I speak freely?’

  Andreas said, ‘Of course.’

  Marios said, ‘We are part of the EAM, the Greek National Liberation Front of Greece. We want you to join us, as you are an educated man. Our cause is to free Greece from the Gestapo and protect the Jews. We wish you to take the position as general secretary of the entire Peloponnese. Will you do it?’

  Andreas said, ‘Ourania, give the man food and some wine, a warm tea later, and fix a bed for the man to stay the night.’

  Ourania did what she was told.

  Andreas said, ‘I will serve my country again. Count me in. Where are we meeting?’

  Panopoulos said, ‘Behind the mountains of Helmos, near Psomiako, at the mountain well. The revolutionaries are now gathering to issue a declaration in January. We have prepared a rough draft, and we want your input in finishing the draft.’

  Andreas said, ‘Done. We leave tomorrow. Do you have army fatigues for me to wear and rifles?’