Stefanos Sarafis Στέφανος Σαράφης | |
|---|---|
 Stefanos Sarafis in 1944 | |
| Born | 23 October 1890 |
| Died | 31 May 1957 (1957-06-01) (aged 66) |
| Occupation(s) | Military officer (Colonel in theHellenic Army, Major General inEAM-ELAS) and politician |
| Organization(s) | National Liberation Front Greek People's Liberation Army |
| Political party | Party of Liberals (before the war) United Democratic Left (after the war) |
Stefanos Sarafis (Greek:Στέφανος Σαράφης, 23 October 1890 – 31 May 1957)[1] was an officer of theHellenic Army and Major General inEAM-ELAS, who played an important role during theGreek Resistance.
Sarafis was born atTrikala in 1890. He was anAromanian.[2][3] Sarafis studied law in theUniversity of Athens. During theBalkan Wars, he enlisted in theGreek Army as a sergeant and was promoted to lieutenant in 1913. He became aVenizelist and played an active role in the various military conspiracies that were formed during the troubled 1920s. He participated in the two failed Venizelist coup attempts of 1933 and1935. The latter was led byNikolaos Plastiras and intended to overthrow the government of Prime MinisterPanagis Tsaldaris. The failure of the coup resulted in the execution of its leader fortreason and dishonorable discharges for several of the participants. Sarafis himself was condemned to life imprisonment but was pardoned by the government.
Sarafis wasexiled to the island ofMilos which was populated but had no connection to military activities. He was thus effectively isolated from possible contacts with active Army members. In 1938, Sarafis was introduced to Marion Pascoe, an English student of theUniversity of Oxford who visited the island to pursue her studies ofarchaeology. However, her limited knowledge of theGreek language prevented her from effectively communicating with the locals.
Sarafis was reportedly the only person on the island with working knowledge of the English language and volunteered to help her in communicating. Their private conversations over political beliefs and theHistory of Greece resulted in her lifelong interest in Greek matters. Marion later claimed to have fallen in love with Sarafis at this point.
Marion left Greece during theGreco-Italian War. Sarafis resurfaced as a leading figure of theGreek Resistance movement. Initially in contact with the RepublicanEDES andEKKA movements, in March 1943 he was arrested by guerillas of the communistEAM/Greek People's Liberation Army (ELAS). Despite his background, a month later Sarafis joined ELAS. His motives for this have been hotly contested, but he seems to have been impressed by ELAS' strength and at least partly sympathized with its political aims. In May, he was appointed as head of its general staff. From this position, he played a crucial role during the Resistance and later during theDekemvriana.
After the military and political defeat of EAM in the Dekemvriana, he was captured and exiled toSerifos where Marion re-established correspondence with him in 1946. She had joined theLeague for Democracy in Greece in England, which campaigned for the release ofpolitical prisoners and reform of British policy towards Greece.
Sarafis was eventually released in 1948 and married Marion in 1952. He joined theUnited Democratic Left at about this time. In the1956 Greek legislative election, the United Democratic Left entered a coalition with theRepublican Union, theLiberal Party (EP), theRally of the Farmers and the Workers,National Progressive Union of the Centre and theDemocratic Socialist Party. The coalition came second and managed to elect 132 MPs, while he was among them.
He was a pedestrian casualty in a car crash on 31 May 1957 inAlimos, a suburb ofAthens. He and his wife Marion were taking a walk when anautomobile driven by anon-commissioned officer of theUnited States Air Force collided with them. Sarafis was killed and his wife injured.
George V. Allen, the thenUnited States Ambassador to Greece, ordered the airman to be handed to the Greek authorities for trial. The airman admitted to having beendriving under the influence and having violated thespeed limit. He was charged withmanslaughter. However fellow politicians of the United Democratic Left (and his wife Marion) strongly suspected the incident to be a "premeditated murder" and reported their suspicions to the press.
Thus in 1944, the president of the temporary Committee for National Liberation, Alexandros Svolos, the military head of ELAS, Stefanos Sarafis, as well as the political head of EAM, Andreas Tzimas, were all Aromanians.
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