Konstantinos Sirbas

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Konstantinos Sirbas (* 1922 in Trikala , Thessaly, † April 18, 1944 ibid) was a hairdresser who fought in the Greek resistance against National Socialism and the German Wehrmacht .

Life

As a member of the Communist Party, Konstantinos Sirbas was one of the first supporters of the EAM , the National Liberation Front (Ethnikon apeleftherotikon metapon). The EAM was the largest Greek resistance organization. Konstantinos Sirbas was particularly active in the resistance groups in the countryside around Trikala (Thessaly). He was arrested for the first time by Italian soldiers in the autumn of 1943, but released again after September 8, 1943 when part of the Italian troops joined the Greek resistance fighters.

When eight German soldiers were killed in an action against the German presidium of the occupation of Trikala and against the Greek collaborationists of ESAAD, Konstantinos Sirbas was captured again on April 18, 1944, taken to the local prison, abused and in the presence of his father on the same day (April 18, 1944) hanged in the main square of Trikala by the German and Greek collaborationists. His comrades Braggis, Petros Cianakas, Sergios Gazzos and Konstantinos Steriopoulos were also hanged along with Konstantinos Sirbas.

Konstantinos Sirbas wrote a farewell letter to his father, which is published in the anthology Lettere di condannati a morte della Resistenza Europea (Last Letters to Death Convicts from the European Resistance) .

The Italian composer Luigi Nono chose ten farewell letters from the anthology for the text of his choral work Il canto sospeso, written in 1956 - including the letter from Konstantinos Sirbas.

The farewell letter from Konstantinos Sirbas is documented with the following excerpt.

“My dear father! In two hours they'll hang me in the square because I'm a patriot. There is nothing you can do. Do not be bitter, father; so it was my destiny. I die in company, goodbye. Goodbye in the other world. I expect you and the day when you will come will be a feast day. Get my clothes from the police. There was nothing in my wallet. But it's new, take it, papa. Remember that your son leaves, exasperated that he will not hear the bells of freedom.

Kostas

It was written that I would die in April. "

Translations of the letter into several languages ​​can be found on the interactive Italian portal Canzoni contro la guerra.

Web links

literature

  • Piero Malvezzi, Giovanni Pirelli (eds.): Lettere di condannati a morte della resistenza europea - Last letters from the European resistance condemned to death. with a foreword by Thomas Mann. Giulio Einaudi Publishing House, Turin 1954. (first edition)
  • Jean Lartéguy: Les jeunes du monde devant la guerre: documents . Gallimard, Paris 1955, OCLC 14688776 , pp. 195, 200.

CDs

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Source: Piero Malvezzi, Giovanni Pirelli (eds.): Lettere di condannati a morte della resistenza europea - Last letters from the European resistance condemned to death. Foreword by Thomas Mann . Steinberg-Verlag, Zurich 1955, pp. 243–244.
  2. ↑ Piero Malvezzi, Giovanni Pirelli (ed.): Lettere di condannati a morte della resistenza europea - Last letters from the European resistance condemned to death. Foreword by Thomas Mann. Steinberg-Verlag, Zurich 1955, p. 232. (Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag, Munich 1962)
  3. ^ The basis of the text of Nono's composition are also the farewell letters published in the anthology by Anton Popov (Bulgaria), Eleftherios Kiossès (Greece), Andreas Likourinos (Greece), Chaim (Galicia) (Poland), Esther Srul (Poland), Lyubow Grigoryevna Schewzowa (USSR), Irina Maloson (USSR), Eusebio Giambone (Italy) and Elli Voigt (Germany).
  4. ↑ Source: Piero Malvezzi, Giovanni Pirelli (eds.): Lettere di condannati a morte della resistenza europea - Last letters from the European resistance condemned to death. Foreword by Thomas Mann. Steinberg-Verlag, Zurich 1955, pp. 243–244.
  5. ↑ Konstantinos Sirbas, Luigi Nono. Il Canto Sospeso
  6. ↑ Lettere
personal data
SURNAME Sirbas, Konstantinos
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Greek resistance fighter against National Socialism
DATE OF BIRTH 1922
PLACE OF BIRTH Trikala
DATE OF DEATH April 18, 1944
Place of death Trikala