Elektra Apostolou (1912-1944)

Elektra Apostolou was born in Athens on 20 February 1912 and she came from a wealthy bourgeois family. In 1924 she enrolled at the German School of Athens. A German professor, follower of Marxism, was her initial influence for her joining the communist movement, since from a very young age -14 years old- she joined the ranks of the Federation of Communist Youths of Greece (OKNE) in 1926.

“From the age of twelve she had started reading social books. And from the age of fourteen she was fundraising for the victims of the Pangalos dictatorship. She was then studying at the German School and was a restless little girl with two thick braids and many questions in her mind: why do we eat and the workers and peasants who produce the goods are condemned to permanent hunger? Why do we study, travel, have fun, have everything we want and they are undressed, illiterate, crude”, Elektra wondered -as Dido Sotiriou conveyed her words-.

Although she was constrained by her family, who considered her involvement in the communist movement a youthful whim, she found ways to respond to party work. “She found many difficulties with the restrictions of home and was always puzzling her mind to find ways to escape. When there was to be an event her mother would send her ‘under restraint’ to an aunt in Psychiko who had a large house with a garden. At the time of the event she was locked in her room. Elektra was in communication with her cousin who helped her to escape”, Avra Partsalidou says.

She became a member of the leadership of OKNE in 1930 and in the same period she became a member of the party. In 1933 she took over the publication of the newspaper H Neolaia (The Youth) of OKNE. About her work in editing the newspaper, Avra P. said: “She worked day and night in the printing house, with a bun she spent her afternoons and evenings. Hunched over the papers, she cut articles when they didn’t fit, quickly wrote supplementary material when she had gaps”. At the same time with her job at the newspaper, she was responsible for the working youth and she was particularly involved with the working women. In the textile and tobacco factories she organized and guided the women workers and participated in their mobilizations.

In 1930, she got married to the doctor Yannis Sideridis, a member of the KKE, who died of starvation during the Occupation -at the end of December 1942- in the concentration camp in Katouna, Etoloakarnania. Her marriage was also an indirect way of leaving home and moving more freely in the movement. Characteristically, A. Partsalidou mentions about Elektra’s wedding: “when Elektra got married, she did not invite anyone to her wedding. Only her mother and close relatives attended. The more the priest spoke slowly, the more eagerly Elektra looked forward to it and watched the time. She had work to do at the Podarades [a neighborhood in Athens where the textile factories were located]! As soon as the ceremony was over, she breathed a sigh of relief, hastily put a few couplets in her pocket to treat the young people and left, running away”.

She participated in the World Anti-Fascist and Anti-War Women’s Congress in 1934 in Paris, as head of the Greek delegation. Elektra in her reports for the newspaper Rizospastis she describes her experience of the trip and her participation in the world congress. “Friday 27/7/34 evening. I’m sitting in a corner of the boat and wait. So far everything has gone well no one has brought me any difficulties. Not even the passport control that I was so afraid of. For although my passport is completely genuine and in order, and although our country is called a Greek democracy, no one can know what might happen if an officer of the law who knows me recognizes me. I hide as much as I can. At last, the boat whistles once, twice, three times…”.

Passing through Italy by boat – on the way to Paris – becomes an occasion for her to report on the fascist dictatorship of the neighboring country. “We are passing through the country that has been groaning for years under the cruel bloody boot of Mussolini. The sun rising from behind the mountains shines down on states and villages. It has dawned, for the workers of Italy, for Italian women, another day of slavery and oppression but also of a tireless fight against fascism. Passing by here, I feel even greater the task entrusted to me by the women of Greece, electing me as their representative to the world anti-war and anti-fascist women’s congress.”

Her enthusiasm for her participation in the conference is evident in the reports she sends. She meets women from all over the world and conveys the collective feeling by describing the events at the conference with great vividness: “the delegates who came exceeded 1000. In one corner the French women start the International. The whole Congress stands up with clenched fists. You hear the International in all languages. From the black woman to the blond female worker of the USSR. They all sing. The International is ending, you hear slogans from everywhere:  “Long live united action”, “Down with war and fascism”, “Free Telman”, “Soviets everywhere”.

As representative of the Panhellenic Initiative Committee against War and Fascism, Elektra said in her speech commenting on the complex political situation in Greece: “we come from a country called the Hellenic Republic. But this ‘democracy’ is anything you want but a democracy. A clear mass fascist party does not exist in our country, but there are some fascist organisations. But the danger of an open fascist dictatorship is very close to us now (…) Fascism is growing every day. Every day new laws are passed that take away our last freedoms.”

In 1935, representing OKNE, she took part in the 6th Congress of the Communist Youth International in Moscow. “Returning to Greece, she toured provincial centres, Serres, Thessaloniki, organised women’s meetings to counter the danger of fascism already hanging over Europe. She was also involved in the organization of an anti-fascist congress that was held in Athens in 1936”, Melpo Axiotis says. The fragile political equilibrium would not last long, and the fascist regime of Ioannis Metaxas would impose itself.

During the Metaxas dictatorship, Elektra Apostolou was arrested, tortured by the Security Police and imprisoned in the Averoff Women’s Prison. “When I am caught, I feel no concern about my testimony. Because as soon as I cross those thresholds, I put in my mind that I no longer have a memory, I have no ears, I have no tongue. I don’t have a single day’s past,” M. Axioti conveys her words.

In the Averoff women’s prison, she plays a leading role in organizing women in KKE and in the everyday life of the prison. “There she goes through that big school that is the prison for conscious political prisoners, but at the same time she leaves her own personal mark in there. She organizes all the women, educates them, raises them politically with her word and example, teaches letters to the illiterate women, gives them music lessons, reads them Goethe’s German poems, and publishes the newspaper “Red Pepper” in prison”.

When she was released from prison in 1938, she went underground, she went to Thessaloniki and became secretary of the East Macedonia-Thrace Office of OKNE. In 1939 she was arrested again, while pregnant, she gave birth in a hospital and then she was exiled to Anafi with her seven-day-old baby.

Meanwhile, at the same time, her husband was arrested and detained in Corfu prison, where, due to the extremely harsh conditions, he signed a declaration of repentance in order to be released from prison. “For Elektra that was a terrible blow. She writes to him again saying that she ceases to be his wife and remains only his friend, giving him time and advice to repent.” Eventually she files for divorce as she finds his choice unthinkable.

She was arrested on the morning of 25 July 1944 in Athens, at 3 September and Ithaca Street, by the Special Security Service. She was transferred to “Crystal” Hotel on Elpidos Street, where the Special Security interrogation office was located. He was tortured during the interrogation and eventually murdered. From her intact attitude during the interrogation and the torture she suffered, a characteristic dialogue survives that accompanies the emblematic figure of the communist – a model in the Greek communist movement.

The dialogue of the interrogation is as follows:

– Where are you from? – From Greece!

– Where do you live? – In Greece!

– What’s your name? – I’m Greek!

– Who are your collaborators? – All Greeks!

– What do you do for a living? – I serve the Greek people!

– Whom do you take orders from? – Only from my country!

On 26 July, the body of 32-year-old Elektra was dumped on the street from the roof of the hotel where she was being interrogated. As it was later revealed, the torture she suffered was unimaginable. Her brother Lefteris Apostolou, witness for the prosecution in the trial of the Nazi collaborators after the war, quoted: “My sister Elektra was arrested by the Parthenios’ group and was taken to ‘Crystal’ Hotel, where after the torture they inflicted on her, she was executed on 26 July 1944. She was hung from a nail, her body was burnt with a cigarette, her body hair was also burnt with alcohol and then she was put on coals.”