This year, he won’t be donning his favorite camouflage uniform, to lay a wreath at his village’s memorial in the mountainous Asomatos of Lesvos, in memory of his fellow soldiers on the fronts of North Africa and the liberation of the Aegean islands. A few days before the anniversary of the “OXI” of the Greeks, 99-year-old Asimakis Polypathellis passed away peacefully at home. He was still “on his feet”, an avid reader with perfect eye-sight, reading without the need of glasses.
And his village, Asomatos, now a village of a few dozen inhabitants, dried up from his testimonies, his memories that he would unfold in the café at every opportunity. Mr. Asimakis, the hero next door. The last hero of Lesvos.
“I started my career” he used to say, “from a joke”. He was not even 17 years old when, while swimming in the Fykiotrypa in Mytilene, playing with his friend Tasos Manakas, he “flipped” into a German boat full of guns. The Germans didn’t have his sense of humour, though… He went ashore, hid naked in the surrounding trees, was scolded by his priest father and then?… Then his escape to the opposite coast was arranged. The punishment that awaited him in case he was caught for this teenage “joke” was death by execution a few meters away. At the place of execution of the patriots who were arrested in Mytilene, in Tsamakia.
His march, the same as the march of all the fighters of those days. First to the camp of Pergamos where military men of all ranks and those who wanted to fight and who were crossing to Asia Minor from Evros and the islands were gathered. And then to Smyrna and then to Aleppo. There he enlisted in the Hellenic Army fighting in North Africa. The liberation missions to the Aegean islands followed.
And then the adventure of the Civil War. “I wasn’t fond of the communists, but I disliked…the Gestapo,” he said.
He missed his chance to become a teacher because of his marriage. He also missed the opportunity to attend the Evelpidon Military Academy School, he did not understand the possibilities of a career in the Army because of his participation on the war fronts. “It don’t matter,” ended up an employee in Athens. But when he retired he returned to Asomatos. “The most beautiful place in the world,” he said.
Until a few days ago. Where he went to meet his comrades and catch up with them. Heroes must have their own paradise up there…
