Lela Karagianni | |
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Λέλα Καραγιάννη | |
 Lela Karagianni, 1916 | |
| Born | Eleni Karagianni 24 June 1898 |
| Died | 8 September 1944(1944-09-08) (aged 45–46) |
| Cause of death | Execution by firing squad |
| Occupation | Resistance leader |
| Children | 7 Children |
| Relatives | Laskarina Bouboulina (Great Grandmother) |
| Righteous Among the Nations |
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Eleni "Lela" Karagianni (Greek:Λέλα Καραγιάννη[ˈlelakaraˈʝani]; 1898 – 8 September 1944), also writtenKarayanni, was a Greek resistance leader duringWorld War II who worked to coordinate Greek resistance cells and their activities against theoccupying Axis forces. Captured andtortured by the Germans in 1944, Karagianni was sent toHaidari concentration camp, where she continued to organize a resistance against the Germans. She was executed by firing squad on 8 September 1944.[1]
Lela Karagianni was born inLimni, Euboea. Prior to World War II, Karagianni was a housewife in Athens. Her husband was a pharmacist, and the couple together had seven children. When theAxis powersinvaded and occupied Greece in 1941, the Karagiannis provided medicine to retreating British soldiers, and later helped some stranded soldiers escape the country.[2] As the occupation continued, the family grew increasingly involved in the burgeoningresistance movement against the-then Italian occupiers of Athens; this eventually resulted in the Lela, her husband, and her older sons joining theNational Republican Greek League, commonly known by its Greek acronym EDES. Lela formed her own cell within the wider movement, code-named "Bouboulina" in reference to her great grandmotherLaskarina Bouboulina, a female Greek captain who had fought against theOttoman Empire during theGreek War of Independence.[3][1][4]
Karagianni and her fellow partisans operated out of her husband's pharmacy in Athens and from a monastery inMegara. The cell distributed information to other cells, smuggled wanted individuals into areas controlled by Greek partisan forces, and forged documents, and coordinated withBritish military intelligence to disrupt the Axis occupation.[1][2]
In July 1944, Karagianni was arrested in Athens by the German occupation forces. She was taken to theSS headquarters on Merlin Street, known to some Greek prisoners as "Hell House".[5] There, she was tortured for several days before being sent toHaidari concentration camp on the outskirts of Athens. While interned, Lela continued to coordinate a resistance effort against the Germans. However, she and other captured resistance members were executed by firing squad on the morning of 8 September 1944, just 34 days before Athens was liberated by Allied forces.[1][3]
Following the war, Lela Karagianni and her family (her husband, daughters, and sons survived the war) were honored for their efforts during the conflict. A bust of Karagianni was commissioned by theUnion of Greek Women Scientists in 1963.[6] In 2011 she was recognized as beingRighteous Among Nations.[2]
Her name has been given to a street in central Athens (Lelas Karagianni St., formerly Limnou St.), close toher house [el], now a property of theMunicipality of Athens.[7]
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