The 11th Day: Crete 1941
| The 11th Day: Crete 1941 | |
|---|---|
| File:Poster lg.jpg | |
| Directed by | Christos Epperson |
| Written by | Michael Epperson |
| Produced by | Christos Epperson Michael Epperson |
| Cinematography | Ian Ashenbremer |
| Edited by | Jordan Dertinger |
Release date | 2005 |
The 11th Day: Crete 1941 is a 2005 documentary film featuring eyewitness accounts from survivors of the Battle for Crete during World War II. The film was created by producer-director Christos Epperson and writer-producer Michael Epperson, and funded by Alex Spanos. Among the eyewitnesses are British S.O.E. operative and famous writer Patrick Leigh Fermor, and Cretan Resistance hero George Tzikas. The non-veterans giving historical commentary include Chase Brandon of the CIA and Dr Andre Gerolymatos of Simon Fraser University.
Plot
On May 20, 1941, thousands of elite German paratroopers assaulted the island of Crete. It was the beginning of the Battle of Crete - the largest German airborne operation of World War II. They had expected to control the island within a few days; after all, they only needed to occupy Paris for a week before France surrendered. What they hadn’t expected was that the men, women, and even children of Crete would fight them to their dying breath.
Together with hundreds of stranded soldiers from Britain, Australia, and New Zealand, and a handful of British special operations commandos and US special operation paramilitary officers from the OSS (the precursor of modern day CIA Special Activities Division) who had parachuted in to help, the Cretan resistance dealt Nazi Germany one of its most crippling defeats of the entire war.
Abduction of General Kreipe
They would even kidnap the German commandant of Crete, General Kreipe - the famous Abduction masterminded and led by British Special Operations Executive officers Patrick Leigh Fermor and Bill Stanley Moss. It was the only successful kidnapping of a German general throughout the war.
Newspaper reviews
Availability
In 2005, The 11th Day toured theaters throughout the United States and Canada. In November 2006, the film was released on DVD (with Greek and English language tracks and a photo gallery of over 500 images), and is currently available in libraries, stores, Amazon.com, etc. It can also be purchased from the official film website listed in the "External Links" section below. Also on the official film website, the producers have made freely available their vast collection of research material, including over 2000 photos—more than 500 of which are rare and unpublished. It is the largest on-line archive of World War II photos and documents in the world.
About the filmmakers
Producer-Director Christos Epperson is an award-winning director and documentary cinematographer whose work can be seen on the Discovery Channel. His production company, Archangel Films, is based in Sacramento, California.
Writer-Producer Michael Epperson earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 2003 and is currently teaching in the Department of Philosophy at California State University, Sacramento. His published works on history and philosophy include the book Quantum Mechanics and the Philosophy of Alfred North Whitehead (Fordham University Press, 2004, ISBN 0-8232-2319-1).
The great-aunts and uncles of Christos and Michael Epperson were members of the Cretan resistance in World War II. In 1943, their uncle Kyriako Xirouhakis and his sisters Eleftheria and Rita joined the resistance group "Pibli" in Hania, Crete. Eleftheria spoke three languages and worked in a German office where she had access to classified documents that she would steal, translate and give to the resistance group. On June 11, at a wedding reception the Germans arrested the siblings except Artemisia who was a baby at the time.
During a search of their house, the Germans found a diagram of the "Perivolitsa Camp" behind a painting on the wall. They interrogated the siblings and Eleftheria took responsibility for the diagram in order to protect her brothers and sisters. Her exact words according to German Lieutenant Volf Sinter were, "I am a spy, I work with the resistance group 'Pibli' and I will not reveal anything else."
They were all taken to the prison at Agia where Eleftheria was severely tortured by the Germans Hoffman and Fritz Sterling to reveal her contacts in the resistance. She was hung naked in the ladies room and beaten repeatedly for three days and nights, but did not reveal any information. There was a German guard next to her 24 hours a day to prevent her from sleeping.
On July 13, 1944 the Germans executed Eleftheria. Her last words according to the records of German nurse Fritz Nider who went to check that she was dead were, "Away with your dirty hands so you don’t pollute a Greek woman. Long live Greece."
Kyriako, Manoli and Dimitri were sent to the Dachau concentration camp and Rita was sent to another concentration camp somewhere in Eastern Europe. They all survived and returned to Crete after the war was over. The three brothers returned the same day their parents were having a memorial for them in the belief that they had died.
On April 4, 2004 the cultural group "Omonia" honored Eleftheria with a statue at the church grounds in Aroni, Crete.
The Epperson brothers' later production was Outpost Harry - a documentary feature film that recounts the little-known story of how 150 Greek and U.S. soldiers stationed in a remote outpost defeated over 3000 Chinese infantrymen in one of the sieges of the Korean War. They were ordered to 'hold at all costs' against an enemy that vastly outnumbered them and flooded into the outpost every night for over a week. (see www.OutpostHarry.org and The Outpost Harry Survivors Association)
personal contact </ref></ref>==See also==
- Patrick Leigh Fermor
- [[W. Stanley Moss]
The battles, the stories, and the events are factual. This family had no major involvement in the kidnapping of German Generals, theft of documents, the gorilla groups that fought the war were more than just one, the producer of this film interviewed the villages of Crete. He then took the stories and fit his family name in place of the true individuals, the battles in the film (I have seen and own this film because I have heard it was a movie about the original family and the family that the infamous letter from Winston Churchill presented to the Greeks “the giants fight like Greeks” was given to that troop for the bravery, sacrifice, and pure misery that group went through.) You have stolen this part of history from the rightful individuals and falsely claimed the events to be that of your families, and have profited off it. You made no mention of the Germans burning the 16 year old child alive when tied to a pole, you made no mention of the man that dived off a cliff in order to escape the Germans facing him, you made no mention of the man who went nearly mad from all the blood he seen in your film, why? Did they not tell you exact things of the battles? I can still contact that family, the documents, and they are all over Crete and the main land these days, the children of those heroes are still living and healthy. Maybe it’s time to tell the true story, the way it was told to you when you pestered the people for it and they finally told you so you could leave.