helped the country in difficult times. Elijah Red belongs to this category of people when he came in Greece has brought a lot of good. His real name was Joseph ΜπλÎÏ‡Î¹Î½Î³ÎºÎµÏ and was born in 1911 in a little town on the border of Dresden. He was baptized a christian orthodox, and was named Elijah Red by the name of the first Λαμιώτη who was killed on the Albanian front.
His mother came from the Czech republic, his father was Austrian and one German national. He was 30 years old when it broke out the second World War and was forced to leave his family and enlist in the German army. The first time he served in Poland, and then was transferred to Greece. The country was under the German occupation and the ΜπλÎÏ‡Î¹Î½Î³ÎºÎµÏ took over the position of the person responsible κλειδοÏχου in the railway station of Lamia. While he was in the service of the German army the ΜπλÎÏ‡Î¹Î½Î³ÎºÎµÏ wasn’t a Nazi, and as long as he could help the inhabitants of the region. Not prevent the Λαμιώτες to steal the food of the Germans from the wagons and freed a lot of Greeks would be executed. Collaborated with the IPU and informed the rebels for the actions of the Germans.
Many sick Greeks, transported with the German trains night in Tucson, thanks to the brave Austrian. The act to prevent the destruction of Lamia planned by the Germans was the culmination of the action. On 18 October 1944, the Germans abandon finally the Lamia. In the city there remained only five Germans in order to blow up all the buildings and facilities of the city as they could, when the troops will have been removed. The munitions were placed in the warehouses of the camp with the aim to explode the morning hours. The ΜπλÎÏ‡Î¹Î½Î³ÎºÎµÏ learned from the previous days of the aspirations of the Germans. On the night of 17 October, together with an Italian, named Mario, he went to the camp and cut the wires of explosives.
Then the Union took care of him fleeing away from the camp, near the village of Groove. The next morning the inhabitants gathered in the church to celebrate the feast of St. Luke. The news that Tucson will be burned around the city, and many began to leave their homes. The ΜπλÎχινγκεÏ, however, had managed to prevent the total destruction and only some small explosions were heard.
The ΜπλÎÏ‡Î¹Î½Î³ÎºÎµÏ he has never left Greece, he married Angeliki Karakosta and had a son. He studied byzantine icon painting, and died in 1995. Humble until the end never flaunted his actions and when asked to speak said: “Write that I’m a Greek democrat, nothing else”.
Source
The Austrian soldier who saved a Greek town from destruction!
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