To certain people there comes a day when they must say the great Yes or the great No

The historic Greek Ohi/ "No" (to voluntarily surrendering the country to the fascists) was absolutely right then; it built the nation as it came through the grandest adventure of the 20th century, fighting against Fascism and the powers of evil for whatever was good and decent and right. As mentioned on big international sites:

"it was a "No!" that brought Greece into the war on the Allied side; for a time, Greece was Britain's only ally against Hitler. Greece not only did not give Mussolini's forces free passage, they seized the offensive and drove them back through most of Albania [...] One theory suggests that had Greece agreed to surrender without resistance, Hitler would have been able to invade Russia in spring, rather than making his disastrous attempt to take it in winter. Western nations, always happy to credit ancient Greece with the development of democracy, may owe modern Greece an equal but usually unrecognized debt for helping to preserve democracy against its enemies during World War II."

Erick Mauraise in his book "Armored Warfare"about WW2 states that the two month delay caused to the Germans (April-May 27) by the resistence of the Greeks (France fell in two weeks) may well have caused Germany to lose the war, since without Greece the invasion of Russia (operation Barbarossa)would have taken place on May 1st as originally planned and the German army would have had 64 days (1st October-4th December) to capture Moscow before the coming of the Russian winter.
The same is hinted in the Historical archives of the Wermacht (in Alexandria-US) -'The Years of War' vol.8 "Vom Serbien bis Creta" (From Serbia to Crete)

«...On October 28th 1940 Greece was given an ultimatum with 3 hours time to reply to, not 3 days or 3 weeks. But even if it were 3 years' time, the answer would have been the same: No!"

  [from a speech by Franklin Roosvelt, on 6/10/1943.]

"For reasons of historical necessity, I have to admit that only the Greeks, out of all the adversaries who have confronted us, fought with bold courage and highest disregard of death" ~recorded by Herman Rauschning in Hitler's adress to the Reichstag on 5/4/1941 (chronicled as he did with all Hitler's speeches and mentioned in his book "Hitler Speaks")

Where's today's "No" when you need it??



"Duce Puts On His Uniform" (Music by Theophraste Sakellaridis, lyrics by George Thisbios, sung by Sofia Vempo) A parody of the song "Mario knits her dowry" as heard in the satirical drama «Bella Grecia», at the Mondial theatre in 1941.




"Children, children of Greece" (Music by Michael Soyoul, Lyrics by Mimis Traiforos & Emilios Savvidis, sung by Sofia Vempo) was first heard on the satirical play "Wartime Athens" at the Mondial theatre during the winter of 1940-1941.This song is written on an already existing melody, Zehra, a love song sung by Sofia Vempo. The melody was known and loved and Mimis Traiforos along with Vempo decided to change the lyrics and adjust them to the Greek reality of the time, creating a song for the Greek Soldiers; a song that would encourage the soldiers but would also inspirit their mothers and women who were waiting for their sons and husbands -or even fathers- to come back from the war.

The title of the post comes from Constantine Cavafy's poem ‘Che fece...il gran rifiuto’. Somewhat giving a different spin.