On Friday, April 26th, Voice of Greece and Thomas Sideris continue the journey to the martyred villages of Crete, documenting the chronicle of the Battle of Crete in May and June 1941, as well as all the events that followed in the following years, during the Nazi occupation.
The 12th episode of Thomas Sideris’ radio series “Forgotten Villages” starts where the 11th episode ended: from the Viannos massacres.
The listeners of Voice of Greece will tour the municipalities of Viannos, Festos and Malevizi and will get to know one by one their villages and the crimes committed during the Nazi occupation from 1941 to 1944.
Leaving behind Viannos, the radio documentary visits the villages of Chondros, Sikologos, Pefkos, Kefalovrissi, Embaros, Vachos, Agios Vassilios, Amira and Kato Symi from the province of Viano, the villages of Tybaki, Magarikari, Kamares and Vorizia from the municipality of Festos as well as the villages of Sarchos and Damasta from the municipality of Malevizi.
Through the narrations and testimonies of the informants on the microphone of ERT, unknown facts come to light from the unparalleled resistance of the Cretan people and the greatness of the Cretan soul. Ten-year-old boys and girls back then, who did not hesitate to enter the struggle against their conquerors, who became the silent witnesses of unspeakable massacres, who grew up with lamentations and mourning for their fellow villagers.
Forgotten Villages: A radio documentary series by Thomas Sideris
Forgotten Villages is the new 20-episode radio documentary series by ERT journalist Thomas Sideris.
Small villages perched on the roots of rocks, but also head villages and towns that were full of life and became places of martyrdom and death during the fascist and Nazi era.
People caught in the maelstrom of history, unable to define their present and future, who lived through the horror and absurdity of war. Those who managed to survive, orphans and happy parents, relatives of the thousands of victims, lived the rest of their lives in endless silence.
Thomas Sideris opens the precious archive of the show “Unguarded Passage” and through his years of research he brings to light older and newer oral testimonies and narratives, which communicate with each other composing a dense canvas of parallel narrative axes about the massacres and holocausts that took place throughout Greece during World War II.
From the martyrdom of Distomo, Kalavryta, Mousiotitsa and Kommeno, to Viano, Anogia, Mesovouni and Domeniko, the “Forgotten villages” come alive again through the oblivion of time and tell us about all these and about all those who must never be forgotten.
Research – Presented by: Thomas Sideris
Forgotten Villages is broadcast every Friday, from 13:00