The Cretan Runner

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Psychoundakis, George (1955). The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation. London: John Murray. OCLC 753260092. On the Platia, monuments and busts of significant Cretan politicians and resistance fighters, the village was always the center and retreat in the liberation fight against the Turks. On October 20, a new film adaptation of John Williams’s novel Butcher’s Crossing, published by NYRB Classics in 2007, will be released in select movie theaters across the U.S. Directed by Gabe Polsky, the film stars Nicolas Cage as the frontiersman Miller and Fred Hechinger...

The Cretan Runner by Psychoundakis - AbeBooks The Cretan Runner by Psychoundakis - AbeBooks

If you were doing a thorough study of the conflict in Crete this would be a must read. If you don't know much about the conflict there this is probably too narrow of a subject and limited in scope to be the first thing to read. The Cretan runners performed exceptional feats and made essential contributions to the British operations in the Mediterranean. In 490 BC Pheidippides ran 42km from the battle of Marathon to tell about the victory over the Persians, and died just after delivering his message. In comparison, Psychoundakis ran from Kastelli-Kissamou on the northwestern coast of Crete to Paleochora on the southwestern coast in one night. The distance along the present main road is 45km. Through a rugged landscape with deep ravines, where he had to run to avoid the Germans, the distance may have been twice as far. The book has at once a calm of a race which takes it for granted that life is full of death, and the excitement of a fighter who wildly enjoys his own part of the dangerous business. It is full of jokes and full of pride. The abovemention of the German General Creever, the Operational Guidance of the State Forces of the "Fortress Crete" by two English officers and a small group of Partisans (Andartes) towards the end of April 1944, is considered the spectacular and daring action of Partisans throughout World War II.Likewise, reading The Cretan Runner, the volume of short tales, events, of fighting the Germans as Cretan resistance seem repetitive at times, but the reader feels guilt jumping, avoiding the narrative. The actions of these brave, resisting individuals have led to comparative freedom for much of the western world for the past seventy years – albeit high dependency and impoverishment in many developing countries, as well as within the so-called advanced economies. In May 2016, I wandered with some friends a part of the "kidnapping route" - to the Perister Beach. From here, the crew was brought to Egypt at night with a boat. Find sources: "George Psychoundakis"– news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR ( January 2013) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

The Cretan Runner: His story of the German Occupation The Cretan Runner: His story of the German Occupation

The author goes on to describe the worn clothes and patched boots George wore, and of his unshakeable humor. In the midst of all the harshness of war, and of everyday life under the harshest conditions, Psychoundakis exemplified the Cretan spirit. Crete can be a foreboding place in Summer and Winter, and the resistance fighters were constantly in the elements. From 1974 until his retirement, Psychoundakis, together with another fighter in the Greek resistance, Manolis Paterakis, were caretakers at the German war cemetery on Hill 107 above Maleme. George Psychoundakis buried Bruno Brauer when he was re-interred on Crete later in the 1970s. [5] Sources [ edit ] Psychoundakis, Georgio (1991) [1955], The Cretan Runner: His Story of the German Occupation, Fermor, PL transl, ISBN 0-7195-3475-5 [6] Psychoundakis’s effortlessly poetic account reflected a passionate love of his homeland and its people, a geologist’s and botanist’s eye, chortling bemusement at the habits of the upper-class British agents, and deep comradeship with his fellow resistance fighters.”—Simon Steyne, The Guardian

The Holocaust of Kedros was an operation involving 2,000 Axis soldiers who targeted Anogeia and Damasta. A total of 900 houses were burned, 50 civilians were shot and 3,500 became internally displaced. In the following days the operation expanded to other villages, men were executed, houses were looted and then burned or dynamited regardless of their involvement in resistance activities. [40] Local resistance bands could do nothing but watch, being vastly outnumbered. [41] Biographical works [ edit ] Stefanidis, Yiannis (1993). "Macedonia in the 1940s". Modern and Contemporary Macedonia. Thessaloniki: Papazissis. 2 (1): 64–103. ISBN 978-9-60-260725-1– via Archive Foundation. Also during the German occupation time in Crete, there was a lot of support for the partisans from Ási Goniá. The most famous son of the place is George Psychoundakis, author of the "Cretan Runner", which describes the joint Cretan-British fight in his book in the substrate. The nature of the resistance to German and Italian occupation was quite different to elsewhere in the Balkans. Characterized by cunning and speed (flexibility), it suited the Cretan character and mentality. German military activity in North Africa – led by Rommel – had precluded any major diversion of arms and supplies to Crete; the enemy occupation of Cyrenaica made sea transport to Crete difficult. Cretan morale plummeted as the scale of German occupation grew.