10/28/2024
Today we Greeks celebrate "OXI DAY" (phonetically pronounced Ohi Day) when we celebrate General Metaxas' famous response to the Italian Emissary sent by Benito Mussolini in the middle of the night of that fateful date, demanding the immediate surrender of Greece to Italy, otherwise an immediate invasion would take place.
General Metaxas' reply was OXI. (No) This was a remarkable thing to do as Metaxas himself was often accused of leaning towards supporting the Axis Powers as World War II spread and intensified. The King of Greece was in exile and Metaxas filled that power vacuum in a history lesson far too complicated to summarize in a paragraph.
Italy soon invaded through Albania and was surprised by the Greek resistance, in spite of the vast difference in arms and weaponry and troop strength. Soon they were pushing the invading Italians deeper into Albania until a fellow in the news quite a bit in the USA today, Adolph Hi**er, diverted a few of his military divisions from the Russian Front where he was planning an invasion, and sent them towards Greece.
As a result, American Newspapers of the day hailed the Greek nation for actually winning the first few battles against what was deemed the invincible and unbeatable Axis Armies.
Greece paid a heavy price during the German occupation as a significant portion of its population died of starvation or through warfare, with occupying N**i troops stripping it of food and resources to use in their other military adventures.
As a result, their invasion of Russia occurred late and just in time for a ferocious winter and the poorly clothed and supplied N**i Army got bogged down and were eventually defeated by the Russians.
Following World War II an equally vicious civil war broke out between the Greek Communists funded by Russia and the Greek Royalists loyal to the Crown which had been in exile during World War II and the overthrow of the then Royalist government by Metaxas. Most of the Greeks who immigrated from the "homeland" to my old neighborhood of Chicago that was actually called "New Greek Town" for a while fled from the decade plus military chaos that had enveloped Greece until President Harry Truman instituted the Marshall Plan to rebuild Greece and other nations in Europe that were decimated by the fascists.
OXI Day is our version of our Jewish Friends who remind us to Never Forget.
