Daddy's War: Greek American Stories

Appendix D: “Never Leave the United States”

[ Appendix D ] “Never Leave the United States” I have reproduced the Newspaper Article the way it originally appeared— that is to say, I include spelling or other typographical errors and facts I know to be incorrectly stated. There was no byline. asbury park sunday press (The Shore Press) October 28, 1945 “Never Leave the United States” That’s the Advice of 15-Year-Old John Kacandes, Neptune Schoolboy, After Years of Terror and Back-Breaking Labor Under the Yoke of the Germans and Italians in Greece “Never leave the United States,” advises John Kacandes, 15-year-old lad who has just returned from a harrowing eight years in Greece. “I tell everyone that this country is far better than any other. People are friendly here and have everything they need. I’ll never leave the United States.” John is the son of Mr. and Mrs. George Kacandes of 1351 Eighth avenue , Neptune. His adventures, which rival those of “Terry” or “Jack Armstrong,” began in 1937 when Mrs. Kacandes took her three children to Greece for a stay of two of two or three years. While John attended school in Athens, the family stayed with their grandparents in Etea, a small town about two miles outside Delphi. In 1939 John’s father wrote from America that war was imminent and advised John to join his mother. A year later the American consul called [ 364 ] APPENDIX D the family to return to the United States, but the Germans entered so rapidly that when the Kacandes’ had reached Athens the American embassy had withdrawn. Making the best of a bad situation, the family returned to Etea. Because of the currency situation John’s father was unable to help financially . Mrs. Kacandes walked 60 miles to sell some home made clothing for food. Inflation had gripped the country and the value of the drachma had dropped so that two truck-loads of drachmas could not equal two British pounds. “It took a car to move your money,” explained John. Greece returned to the ancient barter system, the basis of which became olive oil. One oki (about three pounds) of oil bought five okis of wheat. John described a family forced to sell 70 olive trees for a little wheat, olive oil and soap. The trees had cost $1,500 before the war and they were traded at a staggering loss. John bought three little lambs which he carefully tended until he was able to sell them a year later to feed the family. breaks stones for roads John and his brother found a job breaking rocks for the roads being built by the Italians. Working all day without shoes and with scant clothing, they were paid only a piece of bread and a cup of olives. Every 15 days the Germans gave John six pounds of flour, two pounds of beans and three pounds of dirty raisins. That was all. Later the boy worked in an Italian Fascists kitchen cleaning kettles in exchange for bread and macaroni. Here he rapidly forgot his English and learned the Italian language. His hardest job, however, was working on a grape farm in the Peleponnesus, where he spent all day in the hot sun cutting the grapes and setting them out to dry into raisins. John explained that between 1941 and 1942 raisins were the only form of cheap food for the Greek people. He was paid six pounds of fruit for five days’ work. For three months John worked on a night fishing boat. In the dawn APPENDIX D [ 365 ] he would come ashore and walk five miles to the mountains to sell the two pounds of fish he had received for his night’s labor. Altho they might have eaten the fish, his family preferred to exchange it for bread which they needed even more. John was lucky to snatch two hours sleep before the ship set sail again at dusk. In 1942 he walked to Athens to ask help from the Red Cross. There the Swedish Red Cross welcomed him. He was well fed and clothed and could have remained to continue his schooling, but the thought of his starving brothers and sister goaded him to return to work. The Red Cross could send no help to his family. ship sunk John became a sailor on a German ship and was able to save two sacks full of money. During an American...