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Eleni Papadaki

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Eleni Papadakis (November 4, 1908 – December 21, 1944) was a Greek actress who starred in a variety of roles in the classical and modern repertoire.

He was born on November 4, 1908 in Athens from a wealthy family. She was the granddaughter of University professor Stylianos Konstantinidis. He graduated from the German School of Athens and completed studies in Philology, which he supplemented with vocal, music and piano studies, at the Hellenic Conservatory of Athens.[1][2]

He was murdered by members of EAM ("WEAPONS") during the Decembers. Her death played an important role in turning public opinion against the EAM and she was later condemned by the general secretary of the KKE, Nikos Zachariadis. The reasons for her murder remain unexplained. Some historians attribute her death to the revenge of the EAMites during the Decembriana, due to her friendly relations with the dutiful prime minister Ioannis Ralli, while some others claim that the professional jealousies of her colleagues who deliberately accused her played a role (Emilios Veakis, Manos Katrakis, Katina Paxinou, C. Tsaganeas, Nitsa Tsaganea, D. Myrat, Miranda Myrat, Tzavalas Karousos, Aspasia Papathanasiou, Mimis Fotopoulos, Olympia Papadouka, Aleka Paizi, Kali Kalo, etc.). Her public memory, although it causes public controversy to this day, tends to be restored, after the fraud against her has been proven.[3]

Biography

He was born on November 4, 1908 in Athens from a wealthy family. On Katerina's mother's side, she is the granddaughter of University professor Stylianos Konstantinidis, while her father, Nikolaos Papadakis, was a senior employee of the Ionian Bank. He graduated from the German School of Athens and completed studies in Philology, which he supplemented with vocal, music and piano studies, at the Hellenic Conservatory of Athens. He first appeared in the theater at the age of 17 on the stage of the Spyros Melas Art Theater in 1925 in the play "Six faces looking for a writer" by Luigi Pirandello. This first appearance of hers was characterized by the critics at the time as a revelation. Kostis Bastias, theater critic, wrote at the time in Dimokratia: "today the stage has acquired a great actress". In the same year, he appeared as Heroine in Oscar Wilde's "Salome" and as Rilke Eyden in Henri René Lenormand's Time is a Dream.[4]

In 1926, Papadakis played in the Youth Troupe, as the protagonist of many plays, such as "When Women Love" by Braclay Bousson, "Gioconta" by Gabriele D'Annunzio, "The most beautiful eyes in the world" by Jean Sherman, "Aime" by Geraldy, "Twelfth Night" by William Shakespeare[6] "The Emerging" by Xenopoulos, "Triseugene" by Kostis Palamas[7], etc. In the following years he collaborated with Kyveli, Marika Kotopoulis, Emilio Veakis, Nikos Dedramis, Georgios Pappas, P. Gavrielidis, in various repertoires, where he distinguished himself with many successes. Head of the same troupe in 1931 he played in Istanbul with enthusiastic reviews[8]. Papadaki was also honored with "royal praise - pleasure" on October 31, 1939, in a special ceremony by the King, "for her exceptional service in the Greek theater and especially for her services abroad".[5]

The arrest

«Φθάνει πια η Παπαδάκη! Τώρα θα παίξουμε εμείς τραγωδία!»

Κραυγή αγαλλίασης των αριστερών φρονημάτων γυναικών ηθοποιών

Eleni Papadakis was arrested at the house of Myrat (she was murdered the same night in Galatsi) on the afternoon of December 21, 1944. The one who asked for her was the medical student K.M., later a well-known doctor in Athens, also a resident of the Patision area. He had with him a constable in plainclothes, Theodoros Michalopoulos, the director of the theater Dimitris Soulis, Panos Karabousanos, and the bass of the Lyric Theater Emmanuel Doumanis. All of them were permanent residents of the Militia of Patisia.[6]

Papadaki, accompanied by her friend Emilia Karavia and D. Myrat, was first taken to the offices of the People's Committee of the EAM, on Patision Street 314, to report, as prescribed by the military order, that their order had been carried out and then they all went together in the Militia of their neighborhood, which was housed in the commanding mansion of Papaleonardo, Polyla and Rostan Street.

Murder

After the Liberation, on October 20, 1944, Papadaki was deleted along with seven other actors from the Greek Actors' Union (chaired by Emilios Veakis, Thodoros Moridis, Spyros Patrikios, Christos Tsaganeas, Panagiotis Karavousanos), following the proposal of the union's president Spyros Patrikios in a dynamited atmosphere, where actors shouted "death to the whore". A list entitled "THE BETRAYED ACTORS" published in the newspaper "Apeleertotis" was also released, which included her. In the end, the penalty of expulsion from the union was not applied.[7]

During the conflicts in Decembriana, he was arrested on December 21, 1944, at the house of the secretary of the EAM Theater, Dimitris Myrat, where he had taken refuge. She was arrested by members of the Galatsi-Patisia militia, led by medical student Kostas Bilirakis. It was carried out at the ULEN refineries by a team led by Captain "Orestis" (no relation to "Captain Orestis" of the 2nd Division of ELAS, born Andreas Moudrichas)[12], who is reported to have originally intended her as an ELAS hostage but changed opinion since he allegedly then identified her as "Ralli's wife". He was finally murdered with a pistol by Vlasis Makaronas of the National Militia.[8]

Natural perpetrators of murder

Already 4 days before the execution of Papadakis, the Captain of the 1st SS of ELAS Spyros Kotsakis (Nestoras) had given an order to the ELAS captain and division chief Nikos Andrikidis to control the "Orestis" group, who, after being arrested, admitted before a layman EAM court that they "acted on the orders of the British secret services". Captain "Orestis" of the National Militia admitted that he carried out the orders of the British secret services in order to create public outrage against the executions[13] and was sentenced to death by an EAM people's military court and publicly executed in Koliatsou Square.[14] In 1945, Nikos Andrikidis was referred to a criminal court accused of the execution of Papadaki's executioners and sentenced to life. The natural perpetrator of the execution, Vlasis Makaronas, was executed in 1948.

Within the context of the apology for the murder of Papadakis, leading figures of the Left (e.g. Kotsakis, Andrikidis) claimed that the murder of Papadakis was the trigger for the control of Captain "Orestis" group.[9] και καταδικάστηκε σε θάνατο από ΕΑΜικό λαϊκό στρατοδικείο και εκτελέστηκε δημόσια στην πλατεία Κολιάτσου.[10]

Reasons for murder

The KKE claimed that the murder of Eleni Papadakis was not part of a plan by it or the EAM. As the interrogation progressed, it was revealed that Orestis was allegedly an Intelligence Service agent in his ranks, he sentenced him to death and publicly executed him in Koliatsou Square. The same thing happened from the side of the class trade union movement. In 1976, Nikos Andrikidis was invited to give a report to the Greek Actors' Association regarding the events surrounding the murder of Papadakis. This could not have been done earlier, due to the fact that initially the municipal ballot prevailed in the SEH elections, and then due to the long-term persecution of Nikos Andrikidis (he was released only in 1964), but also the legal restrictions and prohibitions he faced the trade union movement in the context of the bourgeois post-war state, but also of the dictatorship of the colonels.[11]

Historian Iasonas Chandrinos states that figures like Eleni Papadaki "were the obvious target of a world that had suffered from occupation terrorism, executions, hunger and blockades and was now guided by an authentic class hatred, an element that often exceeded party choices".[17] In addition, the historian Panagiotis Delis mentions that the looming defeat of the EAM led, among other things, to the indiscriminate killing of many people who did not participate in acts against it, and he gives as an example Eleni Papadaki who was murdered by "fanatics of the National Militia".

According to her biographer Polybius Marsan, the main reason for her murder was peer envy.[19] According to the historian Andre Gerolimatos, it was probably a consequence of the action of Katina Paxinos[20] which resulted in the subsequent arrest and murder of Papadakis as apart from having a relationship with Ralli and hanging out with German officers, she had become the most popular actress during the Occupation and surpassed Paxinos in the assessment of the same historian.[12]

After the murder

On January 26, 1945, her body was found in the Ullen refineries in a state of decomposition, with large pieces of skin peeled off. Her body according to Elena Stamatopoulou was "mutilated after the fact for greater political gain", while the photo of the corpse was published with charcoal retouching.

Two days later a grand funeral took place, in which Papadaki's death was mourned as a national loss. Then A. Sikelianos wrote the lyrics:

Remember Lord: For the time his blade kills flashed, and all the god of Tragedy appeared. Remember Lord: For the time when suddenly, nine o'clock sisters bent down to put it on her of the ages the wreath. At the same time, her family filed a lawsuit against the actors who supported EAM. In addition, there was an armed attack against the president of the Actors' Union, Spyros Patrikios, in 1945[24][a better source is needed]. The general secretary of the KKE, Nikos Zachariadis, at the 12th Plenary Session of the party's Central Committee, recognized the execution of Papadakis as an "excess" and condemned it[25], while for Greek and British public opinion this execution, along with others, played an important role in her conversion against EAM.[13]

Sources

  1. ^ https://tvxs.gr/news/prosopa/mnimi-elenis-papadaki-21121944-21122014
  2. ^ https://www.viewtag.gr/eleni-papadaki-opos-ti-gnorise-o-ni/
  3. ^ https://www.iefimerida.gr/ellada/i-elena-akrita-grafei-ektelesi-papadaki-apo-elas
  4. ^ Φώτης Πολίτης, «έπαιξε περίφημα, όπως σπάνια παίζουν Ελληνίδες ηθοποιοί (…), εχρωμάτισε καλά, ζωηρά και έδωσε παλμό και ψυχή στο παίξιμό της», Πολιτεία 2 Ιουνίου 1925
  5. ^ Ο Τούρκος ποιητής Χαλίλ Φαχρί σε κριτική του έγραψε: «Είδα μπροστά μου την Ελένη Παπαδάκη ζωντανό σύμβολο της ευγενούς τέχνης, αν και δεν γνωρίζω λέξη ελληνική, ούτε και είχα διαβάσει το έργο, η φωνή, οι κινήσεις της, η μιμική, οι στάσεις της καλλιτέχνιδας αυτής με τη φλογερή ψυχή μου μιλούσαν με λόγια. Άξιον επαίνου η δυναμική της, που τόσο νέα μπορεί και αποδίδει μια ώριμη γυναίκα μάνα».
  6. ^ https://tvxs.gr/news/prosopa/mnimi-elenis-papadaki-21121944-21122014
  7. ^ https://www.protothema.gr/greece/article/940008/poioi-skotonoun-xana-tin-eleni-papadki/
  8. ^ Δεκέμβρης '44, Οι μάχες στις Γειτονιές της Αθήνας, Το ανυποψίαστο θύμα, η δολοφονία της Ελένης Παπαδάκη 1903-1944 της Μαρίας Μαλλιου, σελ 166 Οι διαγραφές των ηθοποιών(..) τελικά δεν εφαρμόστηκαν ποτέ
  9. ^ "Ποιοι κακοποίησαν και εκτέλεσαν τη μεγάλη ηθοποιό Ελένη Παπαδάκη στα Δεκεμβριανά. Ο ρόλος των συναδέλφων της και οι κατηγορίες για φιλογερμανική δράση. Βίντεο με μαρτυρίες". ΜΗΧΑΝΗ του ΧΡΟΝΟΥ. ΒΑΣΙΛΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ Χ. ΠΕΤΡΟΠΟΥΛΟΣ Δ. Ο.Ε. 2019-10-22. Archived from the original on 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2020-09-26. Ο φυσικός αυτουργός της εκτέλεσης Βλάσης Μακαρωνάς ομολόγησε 'Μάλιστα εγώ τη σκότωσα, μου δώσανε να τη χτυπήσω με το τσεκούρι. Δεν μπόρεσα και τη σκότωσα με το πιστόλι. Δε θυμάμαι πόσες σφαίρες τις έριξα. Μια ή δυο…Την εκτέλεση αυτή την έκανα γιατί με απείλησε και με εξανάγκασε ο Ορέστης'
  10. ^ Συλλογικό, Επιμέλεια: Τμήμα Ιστορίας της ΚΕ του ΚΚΕ (2014). Written at Αθήνα. Δεκέμβρης του ’44: Κρίσιμη ταξική σύγκρουση. Αναστάσης Γκίκας, "Το χρονικό του Δεκέμβρη 1944": Σύγχρονη Εποχή. p. 312. ISBN 978-960-451-175-4.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link)
  11. ^ Delis 2017, p. 233.
  12. ^ Αγγελικόπουλος 2002.
  13. ^ "«Η τραγωδία της Ελλάδας ήταν η έλλειψη των κεντρώων»". ΤΑ ΝΕΑ (in Greek). 2018-05-03. Retrieved 2019-10-25.
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