Islahane as a workplace

Throughout the history of Ano Poli, there have only ever been a limited number of workplaces in the area, namely a few small shops and workshops. Although there is little concrete data on cottage industries, especially after the arrival of the refugees, we surmise that they experienced significant growth, led by the clothes manufacturing sector.

One of the few places of industrial labour in Ano Poli was the Axylithiotis Company, which was housed for more than six decades in Islahane, a workshop site located right outside the city’s eastern walls (see also GKT006-GKT007). For a short while after 1922, this space housed Konstantinos Konstantinidis’ silk factory, which at the time was still using manually operated looms. Konstantinidis, a refugee from Prusa, later went on to open an industrial silk factory under the trade name ‘Ilios – Macedonian Silk Textile Industry’ on Lagkada Street. The Axylithiotis Company was originally established by Efthymios Axylithiotis in 1914 as a machine shop. After the company moved to Islahane, the company also established a foundry and a forge on the premises. For years, the company made iron parts for network infrastructure, such as pumps, throttles and fire hydrants to be used in water supply networks, aqueducts and industrial facilities in general.

The company’s archive was discovered on the premises of the Islahane Cultural Centre, where it is now housed. The archive includes a trove of historical evidence from the period between 1950 and 1980, relating to the company’s operations, financial management and the factory’s technical equipment. A large number of worker statements were also found, spanning more than 20 years, from 1934 to 1956. Each statement includes the following information: first and last name, date of birth and father’s name, address, origin, nationality, education, work experience, dependants, date of hiring and, sometimes, date of dismissal. Many of the statements are also accompanied by photographs.

Between 1934 and 1956, 379 workers were registered, with most statements dating back to the 1940s. Of these, 74 had Ano Poli addresses, while many had addresses in areas near the factory (Sykies, Agiou Dimitriou Street and Kassandrou Street, the Rotunda, the area around Egnatia Street, Agia Foteini). Most of the workers who lived in Ano Poli were of refugee descent.

For the younger workers, apprentices who were 14, 15 and 16 years old and joined the factory at the end of the 1930s and during the 1940s, refugee origins are no longer recorded since they had been born in Thessaloniki. From the nine worker statements presented here, we would like to point out the case of Konstantinos Sakellariou from Andrianoupoli, born in 1922, who worked at the factory as an apprentice from 1937 until 1939 and again for two more months in the spring of 1940. Sakellariou resided on the Islahane premises, right next to the factory.

The postwar everyday life of the factory, the workers’ experiences and the hardships of their work, which was both arduous and messy, are recorded in numerous testimonies, extracts of which are parts of the permanent exhibit at the Islahane Cultural Centre. One of these testimonies belongs to Vangelis Georgiadis, a local resident of refugee origins, who spoke of his career as a metal worker, his union work and the nature of his labour. Georgiadis worked for years at the Axylithiotis Company as a lathe operator and mentions in his account that the company employed many local residents.