"We come from a dark abyss, we end in a dark abyss, and we call the luminous interval life." "This is the story of Argyris." "Argyris Sfountouris." "A single day changed his entire life." "No one knows what might have been." "A SONG FOR ARGYRIS" "60 years have passed since that day." "A child is robbed of his parents." "The monstrosity of war." "How does one live with such a past?" "Accept?" "Resist?" "Accuse?" "Saturday, June 10, 1944." "Harvest." "A new day of work and hope." "Death chose this day to destroy the smile on the faces of our villagers." "The German occupiers see the end oftheir autocracy and run destructively amok." "They give the orderfor genocide." "1 dead German soldier, 90 dead Greeks." "For 10 dead Germans an entire village." "It is late afternoon." "Zero hour for Distomo." "Distomo is a small farming village not far fromthe sea on the roadfrom Athensto Delphi." "Near the place where Oedipus is said to have slain his father." "Ancestor Sfountouris settled here." "He came from southern Peloponnese, where vendettas still prevailed at the end of the 19th century." "Argyris's parents have three children." "Three girls." "Both father and grandfather desperately wish for a son." "They are overjoyed when finally their son and heir is born." "This picture hung at an aunt's or at my grandparents." "Because all pictures in our house burnt with the house." "It must be a photo oftheir engagement." "Mother is looking very serious, more serious than she normally was." "She was a spry, energetic woman, who laughed a lot, I believe." "I think I inherited her joie de vivre and her enterprising spirit." "Father looks exactly like all descriptions ofhim." "Aserious, contemplative man." "I guess I inherited his seriousness." "And his sense of justice." "lder people often repeated:" ""Yourfather was a just man."" "An invitation to become like him." "So he was a role model... almost out of obligation." "Amoral imperative." "WhenArgyris is born in September 1940," "WorldWar II is raging in Europe." "The wildly determined Greeks push back the first attack by Fascist Italy." "But then the Germans invade the country." "This is theAthens radio station." "The assailant enters the city where all doors are locked." "Greeks!" "Keep up your spirits!" "Watch out!" "The Athens radio station soon won't be Greek any more." "Athens is conquered on April 27, 1941." "The swastikas raised on the Acropolis." "The GreekNational Bank is raided." "The Germans unrestrainedly seize" "Greek food supplies and ship them to NorthAfrica for their field campaign." "Adisastrous famine is the consequence." "Over 300,000 people die in the first winter." "The ICRC starts the largest relief action in its history." "Over 700,000 tons of food are distributed among the population." "I know the Germans well." "They loved Ancient Greece." "Hundreds of German soldiers and went up to the Acropolis" "carrying books in order to study." "After heavy combat, our soldiers find the time to visit the classical buildings:" "on the Acropolis." "When they came back down, they saw our 8 year olds running around to get hold of some food." "If they caught a child who had found a crust ofbread," "they seized it by its hand and broke its arm." "The same soldier who adored the Parthenon pulled the child close and broke its arm." "It's simply not normal." "The Germans really went too far." "Restistance builds up fast." "Partisans unite nationwide." "TheNational liberation front is formed, a popular left-wing group, and later its military branch, the Greek liberation army." "Our village was only slightly affected." "Being a farming village, people weren't starving." "It wastotally self-sufficient." "Partisans and Germans came to the village" "to get what they needed." "Amember of each family had to join the partisans." "which was also used as leverage to have them under control." "A member of the partisans can fight forthe liberation." "But he can also be used as a hostage to put pressure on the family if it is unwilling to provide goods." "Those were most cruel times, from all points of view." "The partisans develop great strength." "At the end of 1942," "Hitler orders to fight against these "gangs" as brutally as possible." "Troops are authorised to use any means, even against women and children, if they prove successful." "At the same time, the tide starts turning at the fronts." "The Allied Forces land in Normandy on June 6, 1944." "A fateful moment for people in Distomo." "Only four days later, on June 10, 3 companies of an SS armored division drive to Distomo: gang control." "Argyris is three and a half years old." "Several single images stand out in my mind." "I remember that morning." "I must have been playing as usual with my friends in front of the house." "Loads of trucks drove into the village." "This was unusual." "Ahuge convoy enters the village at around 10 a.m." "12 young farmers are tied to the first vehicle." "To stop potential guerilla attacks." "They are deposited next to the school." "The priest and the mayor are asked whether there are bandits in the area." "Yes, partisans had passed by the day before, heading for neighbouring Stiri." "The German soldiers search the village." "Then we were given orders to withdraw to our houses." "We went to the upperfloor, our living quarters." "Mother had gone shopping intown inthe early morning." "Tension was growing." "The village was silent." "We locked ourselves in." "We had an icon in the corner ofthe living room." "Father said:" ""Sit underneath the icon and pray" ""for our survival."" "While some soldiers guard the village, a company sets out for Stiri," ""for reconnaissance"." "It is ambushed nearthe village." "7 Germans die in a fierce struggle." "The Hauptsturmfuehrer orders aretreat to take revenge for the ambush with aretaliatory measure in Distomo." "First the twelve hostages are shot before the villagers' eyes." "It is early evening, half past 5." "At some point, they put me on the window sill or a chair so that I could look outside." "I saw that something was installed opposite the school, something similar to a cannon." "It started spewing fire." "It was clearly the moment when we realised: something's happening." "The German soldiers search all streets ofthe village." "They start breaking down doors." "The villagers try to hide, among them two of Argyris's cousins." "First my grandmother Katerini, then I went down to our hideout, and then my sister." "Fani was last." "She closed the trapdoor pulling a rag rug on top ofit to disguise the hideout." "From there we heard the sounds of the Germans' steps." "The hideout was only 3 ft high." "Wooden floors in ground-level houses weren't laid down directly on the ground." "I had knocked my head against the wall, because I had moved abruptly." "I was bleeding profusely." "I didn't notice because it was pitch dark." "How long do they have to wait?" "Half an hour, two hours?" "What are those noises?" "Screams?" "Soldiers also knock on Argyris's door." "The father tells his children to remain upstairs." "He goes downstairs." "The entire house went up in smoke." "The three girls, two of my sisters and a cousin, took me by the hand and went outside." "We looked for ourfather inthe garden." "At some point we opened the garden door to go outside." "This is where I saw people and trucks standing around and soldiers who jumped onto them." "Danger is not yet averted." "A German soldier sees the children." "But he doesn't seize his rifle." "He signals to them to disappear." "One of them threw pebbles or something else in our direction, to make us turn around." "Fortunately we understood." "We closed the garden door again and waited for things to calm down." "Then we set out, and 25 yards around the next corner, near the square, my father was lying." "He was dead." "I didn't realise that he was dead." "I wanted to run up to him, but my sisters held me back." "His temples were patched with red." "That's the last image I have ofthat day." "I rememberthat they found the cart, on which mother came back from town." "It was 2 miles from the village." "Mother was lying on the cart with her eyes closed." "Another image that has stayed with me." "The following morning." "I knew both my parents were dead." "We have lost so many people." "So many people left us and we couldn't understand why." "Your father, the poor man." "He was lying a few steps away from Uncle Mitsos." "Both were dead." "Whom should one remember first?" "So many innocent people have died." "Slowly the extent of the massacre is becoming clear:" "218 people were killed." "Children, babies, women, men, old men." "Apart from his parents," "Argyris loses another 30 family members." "The same evening, Fritz Lautenbach, the responsible Hauptsturmfuehrer, writes his report." "German soldiers were shot at by grenade launchers in Distomo." "He deliberately turns the massacre into a fighting action." "But a sergeant of the field police is also present." "Georg Koch reports that Lautenbach grossly misrepresented facts." "The incident has to be investigated." "Lautenbach's superior defends his action as "exemplary"" "and as "natural military sense"." "Lautenbach is posted to the east front." "He falls six months later." "In occupied Athens, Jorgos Theodorakis is given the secret task of gathering accounts of war crimes perpetrated by the Germans." "Theodorakis keeps the documents at home, where he lets his son Mikis read them, amember ofthe liberation army." "I remember something that happened in Distomo." "I read it in a report by a police officer." "He described the following:" "The Germans entered the priest's house." "The priest was there and his wife, their 18-year old daughter and other children." "The priest was reading." "The Germans undress the priest." "They undress his daughter, in the presence of all others." "They cut off the daughter's breasts and put them in her father's mouth." "Then they cut off the father's genitals and put them in his daughter's mouth." "In front of the family." "Then they killed them all." "That was one thing." "They also threw all children under the age of 5 into a burning stove." "They were alive!" "There were many such stories." "It still haunts me." "There was a double bed, on which my fatherwas lying." "Was he ill?" "He lied down after harvesting." "There was a small cradle here, where my baby brother slept." "He was almost 2 years old." "My mother was leaning against this wall." "She was sitting at this spot." "My brother Panajotis, aged 6, and I, aged 4, came into the house." "When we saw that our parents were silent, we started calling to them." ""Daddy, Mummy, Niko!"" "They didn't answer." ""Daddy, Mummy, Niko!"" "They had slit open the baby, and thrown it at our mother's feet, his face facing downwards." "My elder brother bent down and picked Nikolaki up." "His insides fell out on to my brother." "I went to my mother and shouted: "Mummy!"" "When I touched her, she fell down as well." "We both started crying." "We didn't know what to do." "What can a four-year old and a six-year-old say and do, when they see their parents like this?" "We went back to father on the double bed." "We shouted: "Daddy, Daddy!"" "Our fatherwas not only dead, they had cut up his hands to remove his ring." "We went back to our mother." "They hadtorn herteeth out." "She had been heavily beaten on her chest and her head, as far as I can remember." "When our grandmother saw us cry, she asked: "What's the matter?"" ""Where are your parents?"" "We cried all the more and told her that they had killed our parents." "I rememberthere was a small bangle on a table nearby." "My parents had bought it for me." "One with red stones." "I seized it and put it over my wrist." "But grandmother said: "My girl, you're an orphan now."" ""You'll be wearing black all your life."" ""Take it off again."" "It hurt me deep in my heart." "I was still a little child and would have loved to wear the bangle." "She didn't let me." "That's all." "Argyris and I are cousins." "We are both Sfountouris"." "We went through the same pain." "This is my grandmother." "Do you see what she looked like?" "As if she was crying." "Every year, photographers came when mass was celebrated and took pictures of us." "They came here from everywhere." "My grandmother." "Always wearing black." "And the head scarf." "We wore head scarfs, a symbol of great mourning." "This head scarf." "As a young girl." "Black clothes, black years." "What else can you say?" "He looks exactly the way I remember feeling." "He clenches his teeth." "It doesn't occur to him to laugh." "His eyes wide open, he looks into the world and asks:" ""Is this really the way you want it?"" "When, as athree-year-old, you're suddenly on the street, the house and the parents are gone, no matter how much my older sisters, grandparents and aunts looked after me, it was a total collapse of everything" "I experienced as being my world and as the meaning oflife." "I ask myselfto this very day:" ""Can this be?" "Who takes the responsibility of preventing it from happening again?" "In autumn 1944, a few months after the massacre in Distomo, the Germans withdraw from Greece." "British troops land in Piraeus." "Hope for peace." "The Communist liberation army celebrates the end of the war." "Within afew years, it had 3 quarters of Greece under its control." "Yet one of the bloodiest civil wars in 20th century Europe is about to begin." "The British order a disarmament of the left-wing partisans, whereas they let the right-wing paramilitary units have theirway." "For Communists mustn't become the greatest power in the country." "First harbingers of the Cold War." "Ayear after the end of World War ll, reparation payments are defined:" "over 7 billion dollars." "But soon Western allies need Germany, the former war time enemy, as an ally against Communism." "At the London Conference of 1952, it is decided to defer payments until a peace agreement is set up." "In Distomo, war damage is huge too." "Houses are burnt, schools are closed." "Argyris and his sister Kondylia, the two youngest children, cannot stay with their grandparents." "They are separated and put into orphanages." "Athousand boys stayed in this orphanage after the war." "My grandfathertook me here in 1946." "Realising that grandfatherwas leaving, and I was to remain behind, I put up a fierce struggle." "I ran after my grandfather, but the attendants held on to me." "This is when I realised that I no longer had a home and would never have a home again, but had to stay here with the other boys who suffered a similarfate, who had also lost everything," "wrangling and quarelling, so to speak." "We were waiting to be allowed to see you." "Andthen you calmed down too and you said:" ""Auntie, I'll stay."" ""But you must come and visit me."" "They didn't allow it at once." "They wanted to see how you settled in first." "But Argyris fares poorly there." "His body is unable to digest the food." "He becomes increasingly weaker and is sent to a smaller orphanage, just outsideAthens." "This wasthe big dormitory, without that wall." "Small windows on one side, large ones on the other." "Four rows ofbeds, with 25 beds each." "Ahundred children all in all." "I remember with drawing to a little hill for countless hours every day, looking into the distance and thinking:" ""Away from here!"" "Then something happens after4 years:" "ARed Cross group visits the orphanage." "They are looking for children, who are young, intelligent, and ready for a new life elsewhere, for a journey to Switzerland." "When youwere about to go to Switzerland, we thought:" ""How lucky Argyris is!"" ""He can leave and study!"" "I remember Marianthi saying how far away it was." ""lt doesn't matter", I said." "I wishthat they'd taken our children as well." "My remark pleased you." ""Do you really want to go,Argyris?"" ""Yes, I do!"And how!" "They'd told him how beautiful Switzerland was and that orphans from all over the world went there." "I asked him: "Do you, an 8-year-old, want to go there?"" "But he wanted to." "That's how he went to Switzerland." "Argyris, not even 9 years old andthe weight of a five-year old, lands in Geneva in April 1949." "His destination: the newly built" "Pestalozzi Children's Village in Trogen." "We crossed the whole of Switzerland from Geneva to Trogen by train." "Finally through huge walls of snow, a totally unfamiliar countryside." "It was a great shock in a way, but also fun to see the snow and something new, like in a fairy tale." "When we arrived, had dinner and were shown our new beds, a phase of rest started." "Finally we could develop our appetite, we could sleep quietly in this fresh air." "We were at home, at least physically, if not spiritually." "The original idea:" "help as many war orphans as possible, and let them grow up together in a village where they could become friends." "That's how they came here." "Many of them grew up as full orphans, in the spirit of understanding and reconciliation." "We were woken at halfpast six." "We got ourselves ready, had breakfast and then went to school." "In the beginning, there was a classroom onthe first floor of our house." "This is where we learnt Greek, and the others their national language, during primary school." "Then there was abreak until 2 p.m., when we had to be quiet." "Then there were afternoon classes, together with all other nations." "It was called international class." "The children publish their own paper." "Argyris learns about writing, typesetting and copywriting." "I remember it very well." "I sat at the typesetting machine for countless hours, a very nice time." "It started when I was about eleven." "Until my Alevels" "I remained with the editorial team." "Together with other children," "Argyris is in the film "Our village"." "The film underlines humanitarian tradition of Switzerland." "It is first screened in Cannes and wins an award in Berlin in 1953." "A central theme is about accepting German orphans in the village." "Please sit down." "Have you reached a decision?" "None of you want to speak?" " I do!" "Jean?" "Let's hear!" "We don't want them." "You think the same, Michael?" "Yes." "Useless." "That's enough, children." "You may go back to your houses." "The scene culminates in ahunt of a German girl seeking refuge in the village." "It's scary whenthe children say" ""We don't want any Germans", and then have to perform the hunt." "It's the adults teaching the children to be nationalistic and to hate others, and not the children themselves." "But we did learn a lot during shooting, here in the village and later in Zurich, where studio shotstook place." "That's where I started longing to study in Zurich after my Alevels." "To me, it seemed almost like paradise." "When he got into secondary school, I said to the pupils: "Listen, I think it would be agood idea for all of you to write an essay about aprominent contemporary." "They agreed." "Without telling me," "Argyris wrote to Albert Einstein." "He simply wrote to him, full stop." "One day, Argyris comesto me with a letter in his hand." "I can still see him before me, he was wearing aboy scout uniform." "He said: "Look what I've got here."" "It was a letter from Einstein." "I realised he was full ofinitiative." "He had written his letter in such a way that Einstein replied." ""Dear Argyris, I was very pleased with your kind letter dated July 6, including the fact that you gave a talk about me." "Keep up your interest in science." "It is a friend for life." "With my very best wishes," "Albert Einstein."" "When I came to the village, we all had atask to do:" "filling up the heatingwith coal." "Every child, not groups of 2-3, had the weekly duty to go downto the cellar, also at night, to fill the heating with coal." "I had to do so when I was ten." "And I remember it being a march to hell." "Down to the cellar, open the door and look at the glowing coal." "It brought back memories instantly." "Eight years in Switzerland already, this untouched country, as I fit existed out of time, which considers itself neither a victim of history nor a perpetrator." "The village children rarely talk about why they're here." "On a Christmas Eve, they attend mass in the St. Gall cathedral." "Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is performed." "It was an overwhelming experience." "I was transposed into an entirely different world." "I began asking myself how a German composer" "could compose this mass in this moving way" "and how the Germans, 150 years later, or not even 150 years later, could commit such horrible crimes." "I felt agreat shock within me, about this great tension that lies good and bad and how thin the line can be." "Like Beethoven said in the score:" "May God grant us inner and outer peace." "It moved me greatly:" "This begging for peace means that people with such an experience are almost, or even totally," "unable to find peace or inner peace." "It's all the more difficult to promote peace for all humans." "and to help mankind if you don't find inner peace." "Why have I survived?" "Why wasn't I killed too?" "Can one leave the past behind, this overbearing black shadow?" "Summer visits in Distomo, where anew generation is growing up," "andwhere, despite all traditions, the massacre hasn't been forgotten." "People here won't forget." "It is as if these things had happened only yesterday." "I don't think they feel hate, but they feel pain" "and sadness in their hearts." "Maybe it feels to them like a bad dream, but unfortunately it was reality." "All that happened here." "I was not yet born on the day ofthe massacre, only a year later." "I was giventhe name of my brother, whom the Germans killed, alongwith 13 otherfamily members." "My fatherfound him dead by the fountain overthere." "Histhighs had been sliced up like meat at the butcher's." "In desperation, my father hit his head on the ground." "He suffered from migraines afterthat." "I often wonder what I would have been like if my brother had been here, which of his qualities I have, and how much I'm apart of him." "An existential pain." "An even more existential helplessness." "We had told grandmother where Argyris had gone." "She wasn't an educated woman and had gone through so much." "When she heard what language he spoke, she exclaimed: "German!"" "She tore her hair out." "It was the Germans who had killed her children." "She had a shock!" "German!" ""My God, my child has been taken to Germany!"" "During Argyris's childhood near Germany, a new generation is growing up in Germany." "A new youth that wants to confront the national socialist past of its country with open eyes." "I grew up" " I'll use the wrong word - as a totally normal human being who doesn't ask questions and who thinks he lives" "again the wrong word - in a totally normal society." "In fact, I grew up in a society, that was marked not only by the crimes committed, but also by its perpetrators." "My father was with the Reiter-SS." "He was with the Wehrmacht and he was in Thessaloniki in Greece." "I saw a photo of him when I was little." "He's sitting on a table giving an order." "I asked:" ""What were you doing there?"" ""What were you doing in Greece?"" "I knew that the Germans had committed crimes in Greece." "Even on his deathbed my father said:" ""I wasn't aNazi."" "We had big arguments about it." "We liked each other, but we argued a lot about it, because he never said what he did there." "I went to Greece as a student." "It took me many years to find out what happened in Greece during the German occupation." "I went to Greece every year as a student and didn't know about these things." "There is a photo of my father where he's sitting in a state coach with Hitler and Mussolini." "I asked:" ""What were you doing there?"" "His reply: "l interpreted, that's all."" "This opportunism of a typical man ofhis generation has made me think agreat deal, because I loved my father dearly." "I said to myself:" ""Such a nice man, who had six children, who was attentive and kind to them, how could he go to war?" "Why didn't he say that he wouldn't?" "It was striking in secondary school." "He was a highly talented young man, a smart guy." "When he returned to the village after passing his A levels, the others lifted him up," " I have a foto from that - like a wrestling king." "He enjoyed it, of course, although he remained modest and unassuming at all times." "He was aware of his abilities." "But he never made use ofit." "The time for saying goodbye has come." "In 1959, Argyris is admitted to the reputed polytechnics in Zurich, where he studies maths and physics." "A new life." "He's interested in nuclear physics." "As if he wanted to get to the bottom of the smallest tangible particles." "Then he turns to astrophysics:" "The infinity ofthe universe." "In this observatory in Zurich" "I saw a scientific telescope and was allowed to look through it." "Anew dimension opened up for me, which I couldn't imagine at all when I was fifteen years old." "A new world opened up for me, with other views and other rules." "The radiance and the silence of the night sky, or ofthe entire sky vault, impressed me most at first." "Its sparkle, its radiance, its protectiveness." "I never lost this first impression throughout my scientific studies." "The feeling remained constant." "Ulysses in the stars." "into the world, into the universe," "and... into professional life." "Argyris becomes aphysics teacher." "He teaches at grammar schools in Zurich, where the loner has settled down." "Literature becomes ever more important." "He translates Greek authors into German:" "Kazantzakis, Seferis, Jannis Ritsos." "He starts writing himself." "Poems, essays and short stories." "And in 1966 aplay:" ""Hostages of peace"." "An inquiry of blame, reconciliation, identity and being a stranger." "Afirst analasys ofthe shadows ofthe past." "Then Greek history catches up with him." "There is a new catastrophe at home." "Greece has not come to rest afterthe civil war." "Any movement towards democracy was denounced as Communist." "There are riots in parliament and demonstrations in the street." "In the night of April 21, 1967, the colonels stage a coup, establishing abrutal dictatorship." "Ashock to us Greeks abroad." "We asked: "What can we do?"" ""We have to protest from here."" "We organised the first major demonstration on May 20, 1967." "We were able to get" "Max Frisch as a speaker." "Ahuge success, of course." "But it also gave us apolitical streak." "The new regime acts severely against opponents." "Political mass trials, torture, and purges." "Thousands of people are exiled in concentration camps." "Long hair and miniskirts are prohibited." "Who listened to music by Theodorakis, a spokesman of the democratic movement, could be imprisoned." "It was a police state, instilling terror and fear." "Anarrowing of horizons." "Culture was persecuted." "Those were bad times." "But there were a few who held out, who listened to the radio in secret:" "Deutsche Welle and BBC." "We listened to the forbidden songs by Theodorakis." "Our constable, who wastotally uneducated, thought they were beautiful!" "But we listened to Theodorakis's songs as an act of resistance." "Those were times of ignorance, of Fascism without ideology, dominated by uneducated people." "Argyris becomes more active in Zurich." "He foundsthe "Propylea Magazine"." "Aliterary forum for Greek expatriats." "It was amagazine that was considered the organ of all those who were imprisoned." "These are texts by Jannis Ritsos." "Translated by Argyris." "The texts had often been smuggled out ofprison." "This is an edition of Propylea, in which Argyris assumed the pseudonym of Nikos Damianos." "These are antiquarian gems." "It's the story of the resistance in Greece from 1967 to 1974." "Our friendship deepened in those days." "Ritsos sent his poemsto Argyris, and Argyris sent them to me." "I passed them on: a circulation of poems against dictatorship." "Mikis Theodorakis becomes the symbol of resistance." "He is imprisoned, tortured and exiled." "Exiled Greeks organise concerts abroad, where his songs are performed." "I rememberwhen Maria Farantouri came to Zurich from Paris and gave the first resistance concert." "Of course we were all involved in the organisation ofthis concert." "We hung aroundthe musicians a lot." "We were wrapped up in these songs." "The whole floor sang along." "Ablossoming of all things Greek." "Because I didn't submit to instructions," "my mother has been waiting foryears to see me again, beyond the blue waves, beyond the blue sky." "Argyris is blacklisted as an activist by the Greek junta." "His Greek passport is not renewed." "He doesn't have a Swiss passport." "So he cannot travel anywhere." "When a nephew is born in Distomo, and Argyris is to be his godfather, he cannot attend the christening." "A catastrophe in Greece..." "My 3 sisters travelled with the baby through Yugoslavia by train." "I picked them up in Innsbruck." "We baptised him here and could see each of her for a fortnight" "and unfold emotionally." "But those were difficult times because we knew we had to separate again." "And nobody knew for how long." "His host country has become his exile." "Argyris applies for naturalisation." "He has to hold out for four years, before he obtains Swiss citizenship, to his great relief." "Avalid passport again at last!" "And, forthe first time in his life, a uniform." "ASwiss army uniform." "Greece is still ruled by generals." "Yet their days are over." "Due to increasing pressure at home and abroad, they stand down after seven long years." "The leaden lethargy seems to have been lifted in one go." "Theodorakis returns to his country." "The return to democracy is celebrated in alegendary concert." "Tens of thousands sing his songs, although they were prohibitedforyears." "On anAugust morning, in the dawning hours, I went outside to breathe the scent of flowers." "So strong and brave he was and I'll mourn his loss forever." "His springing step, his beaming smile..." "Cursed be the hour, cursed be the day:" "The Fascists murdered him, the laughing boy." "There is no stopping Argyris now." "He boards a ship in Venice." "He wants to return to Greece." "First he meetsJannis Ritsos, the authorwhom he only knew through his poems." "He pays regular visits to his youngest sister Kondylia." "Argyris has been her guardian foryears." "After leaving the orphanage, she has spent her life in nursing homes." "How are you?" "Fine?" "How have you been?" " Fine." "Gone swimming yet?" "Not yet. lt's too cold." "How are you?" "Just fine." "This is the whole family." "I have put youfirst." "Me and my sister Chryssoula." "This is Vassilis with a bunch of flowers." "Here are Dimitri's boys." "Nikolakis and here Orestis." "And here the three sisters." "My entire family!" "Shall we play the game?" "Do you still know how?" "Do you remember me when I was little?" "No." "When I was in the cradle?" "Did you sing lullabies to me?" "Can't you remember when Mummy was singing?" "I can't remember anything." "My mind stood still." "When did that happen?" "When I was little." "Since the massacre." "Your "mind has stood still"" "since the massacre?" " Shall we sing the Easter song?" "Yes." "Easter Sunday has come and flowers are many." "Pick some lilac, children." "The air is filled with joy and song." "Come, let us kiss each other." "Let us lie in the meadow." "Our paschal lamb is is getting cooked." "And to celebrate the resurrection let us crack the eggs." "The parents' house in Distomo..." "It's been uninhabited foryears." "Argyris has brought it back to life." "Somehow it takes me back, of course." "It's more appropiate to say that deep inside I'm still that little boy." "So it isn't about taking me back, but about continuing what used to be, despite outward changes and spiritual developments too." "It is always present." "Forforty-five months," "I received so much from my parents," "I was literally overattended, that I feel to this day how many reserves were built up in that short period oftime." "I can still draw fromthem." "They're not used up yet." "Vassilis, who was baptised in Zurich, is getting married." "One ofthe most important days in life, for his godfathertoo, who is also his best man." "God's servant Ioanna is getting married to God's servant Vassilis." "In the name ofthe Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost." "My life is atemporary arrangement." "I have always felt abit like a wanderer." "So it is difficult to find anyone with a similar outlook, who wants to join you on yourtravels." "This is why living with someone has never been an aim for me." "It wasn't the absence as such of apartner in life, but ratherthe absence of the desire to settle down and to say:" ""That's it."" "Don't be scared!" "It is said that time heals all wounds." "When Willy Brandt knelt down in Warsaw in 1970 something was triggered within." "I saw for the first time:" "there were humans in postwar Germany." "I had a violent, positive emotional reaction." "That no ambassador or Federal President Rau 4 years ago, had felt compelled to kneel down in front of the memorial and to be silent" "silence is the strongest statement - but to use the corresponding gesture." "This gesture of one single man:" "would it be conceivable between nations?" "Where does reconciliation start?" "Where does guilt end?" "At the end of the 70s, it is Arthur Bill who makes Argyris a proposal." "His ex-teacher in the Children's village is building the Swiss relief organiation on behalf ofthe Swiss government." "Argyris signs his first contract." "He goes to Somalia for six months." "He then follows a course at the Zurich polytechnic." "Afterthat he is sent to Nepal." "He works foryears in Indonesia, as a scientific advisor on how to set up highertechnical colleges." "One ofthe greatest times in my life." "It was very challenging professionally." "I could use almost all my possibilities." "Abeautiful country with very pleasant people." "Those were four marvellous, almost heavenly years." "Argyris travels extensively:" "Asia,Australia, and Oceania." "He takes photos to his heart's content." "Landscapes, people... and always the stars in the sky." "It's difficult to say whether I carried less of my my past and all the tragedies" "I had to go through." "Maybe..." "I saw it sort of suspended." "It wasn't as rejected nor as unwelcome as in Europe to talk about it," "to tell about one's experience, as to put it undertaboo." "It was part of my life without being painful." "Far, far away." "Almost like paradise." "Until health problems force him to return to Europe." "Now bend forward and down, ist. as far as you can without pain." "He travels increasingly between Greece and Switzerland." "His stays in his old country get longer." "Over 50 years have past since that fateful day in June." "Should he remember?" "Should he forget?" "There is thistension, causing us, when remembering the incident, to be set back in our development too." "You ask yourself:" "Would there have been other possibilities?" "The 3 1/2 year-old asksthis question." "He keeps askingwithin me." "At every crossroads, this is the crucial question:" "Do you want to keep working on it or are you going to flip," "forget everything and simply try to enjoy life?" "Or follow psychiatrists' recommendations who tend to encourage you to bring it to a close and to resign yourself." "But I told myself:" "I don't want to bring it to a close," "I don't want to resign myself." "I want to do something with my experience." "I don't want to suppress it, or "digest" as shrinks say." "Rather, it is a task that has been given to me." "It is about this question" "I keep asking myself:" "What can I do to prevent it from happeningto others?" "Argyris decidesto appear in public." "He chooses amythical location, only a few miles from Distomo." "This isthe temple area ofDelphi." "Onthe 50th anniversary ofthe massacre, in 1994, we organised apeace congress here" "with Greek, Swiss and German speakers." "We discussedthe topic of war and why there are wars," "why there are such exaggerated acts such as massacres," "and what ways could be found to get out ofthis vicious circle in world history." "PEACE CONGRESS" "Greeks and Germans exchange views." "Scientists, historians, family members and survivors ofDistomo talk to each other." "Friendships are formed." "However... no German offials participate." "Imagine a survivor ofDistomo inviting the German ambassador inAthens" "to a widely attended peace congress:" "professors from Switzerland, France, and many other countries." "The ambassador not only doesn't turn up, but doesn't react to the invitation." "He could have sent a word of absence." "Instead he sendstwo secretaries who incognito note everything" "that is said at the congress, what people like me or others say..." "It is quite an insult!" "I imagine there was the impression ofbeing put in the dock." "Moreover, it is obvious that victims andthe German state" "perforce have different viewpoints." "Argyris rents an attic flat in Athens." "His very personal peace offer, the congress in Delphi, is it too small and insignificant to be noticed by politics?" "Give up?" "Considerthe matter closed?" "The fall ofthe Berlin wall and the end of the Cold War change the European situation once more." "When East andwest Germany make peace, a reunification agreement is signed between the 2 countries and the 4 allies the so-called "2+4 agreement"." "It has explosive legal consequences." "For Greece as well." "Although it is called "2+4 agreement", it is seen as compensation in international politics, the equivalent of a peace treaty." "And so the situation arose:" "the reparation payments defined at the London conference had to be paid in principle." "In the case of Greece:" "7 billion dollars." "Plus interest." "1,600 villages destroyed, over 100,000 victims," "and dozens of massacres inthe country." "On behalf ofthe mayor of Distomo," "Argyris enquires at the German embassy, how these claims can be asserted." "The embassy answers 3 months later." "The events in Distomo are not classified as massacres, as war crimes, but as" ""a measure within the framework of war strategy"." "This was the main reason for me to try with every means possible to publicise those events in all their cruelty in Germany." "In September 1995, we went to court in Bonn, the former seat of government of the Federal Republic." "My three sisters and I sued for compensation of 20,000 DM," "to raise the question of the Distomo massacre in court." "The way I know him, it wasn't about receiving money." "It was about seeing justice, about bringing justice." "And about remembering the murder of his fellow men in Distomo." "290 family members and descendants file a collective action in Greece." "Attorney Jannis Stamoulis represents their cause in all instances, up to the Areos Pagos, the highest court in Greece." "It clearly confirms that Germany is condemned to pay 28 million Euros to the victims of Distomo." "Germany does not accept this judgement." "He who steals has to pay." "The Germans committed theft:" "the fathers and grandfathers of those who live today." "What does it mean if you refuse to pay for your father's debt?" "I believe it would be an eternal stain onthe German nation." "In Athensthere is an outburst." "Attorney Stamoulis starts pledging" "German property in Greece inJuly 2000." "In an action with great media coverage he has the Goethe Institute measured and sets a date for a forced sale." "Diplomatic discomfort is huge." "Only the minister of justice's veto prevents the auction at the last second." "Argyris's and his sisters' suit was meanwhile dismissed in Bonn." "The higher instance in Cologne does not decide in their favour either." "Over eight years have passed since the first action, until finally the Federal court takes its decision in June 2003." "The survivors of victims of an SS massacre in Greece receive no compensation from Germany." "The Federal Court in Karlsruhe rejected the claim of 4 siblings." "The massacre of Distomo was one of the most atrocious war crimes." "Yet the Senate had to solve the question of compensation with the legal dispositions at hand." "With its sentence, the Federal court saved Germany from multibillion claims." "The plaignants can appeal to the" "Federal Constitutional Court or to the Court ofHuman Rights." "Distomo's nightmares aren't overyet." "And nobody knows what the future will bring." "I agree with ourfriend, who lost 30 relatives, who experienced as a child what I read and what I've told you." "lfl'd seen the scenes that I've described," "I wouldn't forget them all my life." "It won't be settled on a legal level in the Federal Republic of Germany." "And it's questionable ifthose who have suffered will get anything out ofit," "ifthe issue is put before the Court ofHuman Rights." "We've moved on sixty years." "Today we're in a situation in which most ofthe states that used to be at war with us or that were occupied by Germany are our allies." "We have been in politics together since the early 50s, and we are NATO allies." "I think it should be generally understandable" "that Germany does not negotiate war compensation with allies any more." "That there is consensus in Germany to pay nothing is quite incredible." "I wreck my neighbour's place, who then comes and says:" ""You must pay!"" "I reply: "Are you crazy?"" ""That was 10 years ago."" "Argyris cannot give up." "He appears before the German public." "He finds more support in the country of former perpetrators than anticipated." "During the exhibition" ""Crimes ofthe Wehrmacht"" "he is invited to Hamburg," "Nuremberg and other cities." "The subject of his talk:" "Wars must not be profitable." "But he's also confronted with Old Germany." "In Bavaria the veterans' meeting of mountain infantry men is held." "Former elite soldiers ofthe Wehrmacht, responsible for countless war crimes." "Also in Greece." "Argyris participate in a counterevent." "He wants to break the taboo of absolute soldier obedience, behind which perpetrators can hide." "This is something which has bothered me a great deal throughout my life:" "how soldiers could behave so brutally for an hour or one and a halfhours in Distomo." "I can't get it out ofmy mind." "I think it should be possible to build in constraints in training to prevent it from happening at all." "In 2005 the German working group Distomo invites him to a congress in Berlin." "In the country of former offenders." "Let's imagine these soldiers entering houses, obeying the command oftotal destruction" "which confers terrible, absolute freedom of action." "Screaming wildly they break into the house and kill men, old women, children, ugly women." "They spare the most beautiful woman and rape her, while her father, her husband, her mother and her brother are lying in their blood." "The sisters K." "were found dead and raped." "The child of G.P." "hadwounds all over." "The unbaptised newborn off." "had almost been cut in half." "Some German killedthe mother L.B." "with a bullet." "She was holding a40-day-old baby in her arms." "The baby started screaming, whereupon the irate soldier stepped on its head with all his might, so that its brain gushed out." "Acouple was burnt alive." "Soldiers enjoyed watching the dance ofthe burning bodies." "Four villagers were found slaughtered, their guts wrapped around their heads." "Most inhabitants that had remained behind were massacred, among them45 children," "53 women, 75 elderly people, 20 children below the age of 5, and six unbaptised babies." "I had a dream." "In my dream, the commander who orderedthe killing lay down next to men, mutilated babies, and a pregnant woman with a dead baby in her belly." "The commanderfelt ice-cold." "His back was as hard as rock, his feet and his forehead were ice-cold, his jaw frozen." "Now he's lying by the murdered people and slowly, starting in his abdomen, his chest, he starts shaking, almost imperceptibly, until he breaks into a soft weeping." "The dead lie there, huddledtogether, peaceful, to the sounds ofhis endless weeping reaching all corners of the universe." "Then everything is quiet." "In my dream." "June 10, 2004:" "The 60th anniversary ofthe massacre." "Distomo prepares forthe 2-day event." "Ambassador Spiegel has announced his attendance at the ceremony." "It is an incredibly difficult subject and it is very difficult to be present at such aplace, be it in Auschwitz or other places, knowing that these crimes were committed in the name of Germany." "But I'm going there deliberately." "I think it's extremely important that I, as an ambassador, or any German representative goesthere, to convey the impression that we mourn the victims too." "Praised be our Lord!" "Now and in eternity." "Amen." "Ioannou, Dimitras," "Georgias, Louka, Dimitras," "Panajotis, Marias," "Othonos, Elenis, Toulas," "Athanasias, Ioannou..." "You can try putting yourself in a victim's place." "But you'll never succeed." "Such a dialogue involvesthe danger of talking at cross-purposes, of intending something different, of not going down well, because a certain keyword is missing." "This is the first German representative to speak at the day of remembrance." "Dear Mayor." "Dear citizens of Distomo, dear friends and hosts of the town." "Unfortunately there has been a tendency to forget and suppress this black chapter in our history." "This is amistake, which I will resist." "As we all know, rememberance is the key to reconciliation." "Only those countries that know their history have a future." "Venerable citizens of Distomo:" "I hope that you'll remember one thing in particular of my speech this evening:" "Our plea forforgiveness." "I would like to present my apologies." "The fact that the German ambassador appears 60 years after the event and apologizes officially" "What does it mean?" "It is a total linguistic decline." "Why does he apologize?" "Does he expect usto forgive him, his government or whoever?" "!" "Has he thought about what it means?" "To use the word "apology"" "sixty years later, as a delegate, in a sort of diplomatic set exercise?" "It's never been about remorse, about insight pointing the way ahead." "Over sixty years have passed since that day in June." "Almost an entire lifetime." "Resist?" "Bring a charge?" "Accept?" "Continue living... with such a story." " Gamvrili Sophia, 43 years!" "Here!" "Zissis Nikolaos, 71 years!" "Here!" "Zissis Panajotis, 66 years!" "Here!" "Sfountouri Vassiliki of Athanassios, 32 years." "Sfountouris Nikolaos, of Athanassios, 2 years." "Sfountouri Ekaterini, 44 years." "Thousands of children all overthe world underwent a similar fate, undergo a similar fate today." "They ask their questions a new every day." "This film is dedicated to them." "Subtitles: pIkO ellas"