The Asia Minor seamen at the Volos port during the German occupation

During the German occupation, the port of Volos was under German control and many boats were commandeered along with their crews. Dimitros Detsis’ father was a fishing boat captain who had come to Volos from Constantinople on his boat in 1924 and settled in the refugee neighbourhood of Agria. When the Germans commandeered his boat, his 16-year-old son, Dimitros, was on it (items 1a and 1b).

Shortly before the liberation, in October 1944, a large section of the port was bombed by the British air force as part of an attack on the German steamboats which were anchored there to carry German troops to safety. Whatever was left of the port was then blown up by the Germans, including many boats. Dimitros Detsis’ boat was among the ones damaged. By that time, Dimitris had joined the Greek People’s Liberation Army (ELAS) and after the German withdrawal, he managed to salvage his boat with the help of the Greek People’s Liberation Navy (ELAN) (items 2, 3a and 3b).

Other Asia Minor boat owners, in collaboration with the resistance, secretly reclaimed their commandeered boats and sank them in order to help the Greek People’s Liberation Navy and save them from the rampaging German soldiers (item 4). One such story is presented here, told by Kostas Kaiafas, born in Nea Ionia in 1931 and hailing from Englezonisi (Uzunada) (items 5a and 5b). Kostas had been working on his uncle’s boat from a young age since his father had died at sea after his boat was torpedoed (items 5a and 5b).

During the first months after the liberation, the port of Volos turned into a distribution centre for the aid dispensed by the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). Even though the food supplies didn’t always reach the ones most in need, people did occasionally have luck on their side, as described by the fishing boat owner Kostas Bountoukos, born in 1932 in Volos and hailing from Aivali (Ayvalık) (items 6a and 6b).

Illegal practices and cases of misconduct always proliferate in times of political and economic crisis. This was also true of Volos in 1945. Employment opportunities were scarce in a country ravaged by war and the chance to boost your wages by stealing foreign aid made heavy physical labour at the port significantly more alluring. Manolis Paraskevas was born in 1928 in Nea Ionia, Volos, and his family originated from Englezonisi. His father had his own cargo boat. Manolis talks about how they stole UNRRA supplies in the summer of 1945, when he first started working as a freelance port worker (items 7a and 7b).