What's new, Mr. Hitler? How is your family doing?

In the summer of 1936 in Berlin were organized Olympic GamesDespite the attempts of the liberals of England, the United States and France, they are to boycott them, mainly because of the anti-Semitic policy of Germany.

The opening of the games took place on August 1. Lucky with the weather, the sky was cloudless. Hitler’s car, followed by a long convoy, slowly rode a fifteen -kilometer boulevard guarded from the crowd 40 thousand attack aircraft. When the procession approached the stadium, Hitler got out of the car, he was followed by the Bulgarian king, the heirs of the thrones from Sweden, Greece, Italy, the sons of Mussolini. They went through the tunnel to the world's largest stadium to welcoming sounds of thirty pipes. The orchestra, led by Richard Strauss and with the participation of the three thousandth choir, performed the anthem “Germany above all”, then “Horst Wessel” and “Olympic Anthem”, composed on this occasion, Richard Strauss. When Hitler took a place on the official stand, the 110,000th crowd arranged a standing ovation to him. Some delegations met him with a traditional Olympic greeting. To the delight of the audience, the Austrians turned him into a Nazi salute. It was obvious that German Nazism, following Italian fascism, gained strength.

Spiros Louis

The Olympic parade traditionally led the delegation of the homeland of the Olympic Games, the legendary Greek Olympicon in the marathon running 63-year-old Spiros Luis was headed. The old athlete was in a national Greek suit and, of course, an indispensable Fustanella. Hitler, who was on the official tribune for the elect, seeing an elderly man in an exotic suit with an olive branch in his hands in a Greek team that opened the parade, wanted to get to know him. After the procession was completed, a meeting of the German dictator with the old Olymponik of the 1896 Marathon Ruing was held. Communication took place through a translator. Hitler gave Spiros to Louis something, and he in response presented the dictator with the branch of olive.- The symbol of the world brought by the Greek Olympic delegation. According to the stadium radio, they announced that there was a meeting of the leader of the German III Reich with the legendary Greek Olymponik, which are in a hurry to capture photographers. At this time, Spotyos Luis, a simple resident of the Athenian district of Marusi, put in a difficult position of the translator, addressed to Hitler: what's new, Mr. Hitler? How is your family doing? (Τι χαμπάρια κυρ χίτλερ μου, τι κάνει οικογένεια;)

The Greece ambassador in Germany was almost enough, but Hitler answered the Olympionic with a greeting and warmly shook his hand to the old man. This episode was lit by the world press. Unfortunately, the olive of the Greek delegation did not help maintain the world. A few years later a bloody, World War II will flash. Hitler, by his personal recognition, with admiration for ancient Greek culture, will be forced to help his ally, the leader of fascist Italy Mussolini, who suffers from little Greece, and the homeland of the Olympic Games will be occupied by the Nazis. Our hero will not live to these days. Spiros Louis, the pride of the Greeks, will die from a heart attack on March 26, 1940.

Spiros Luis and young stelios Kiriakidi

The Greeks have another, unfortunately, almost forgotten hero of the marathon running. This is Stelios Kiriakidis, a native of Cyprus, a participant in the 1936 Marathon race in Berlin, where he took 11th place. Steelios unlimitedly loved Greece in which hunger reigned after the war. Kiriakidisa of the famous athlete Stoyer, champion of Cyprus and Greece, in 1946 was invited to take part in the Marathon race at 42195 meters in the city of Boston. Stelios, resembling a living skeleton, like many Athenians after the terrifying hunger of the occupation and the beginning of the civil war, still decided to take part in the international competition. To buy tickets for a trip, he had to sell many personal belongings. When he appeared in Boston in front of the medical commission to receive admission to the competition, the doctors, having examined the Greek athlete exhausted by the hunger of the hunger, wanted to prevent him from participating in the race.

He told the doctors: I arrived here to escape for seven million starving Greeks and in any case run! Stelios Kiriakidis insisted and signed papers about his personal responsibility in the event of a tragic outcome.

The marathon in Boston took place on April 20, 1946. Many stars of the world marathon participated in the competition, among them the favorite of American John Kelie. Stelios started without haste and held in the middle of competing athletes, maintaining strength. He went forward at the last kilometers of the distance. Forces gave him the memories of the millions of starving compatriots.

The exhausted athlete, straining the last forces, escaped forward. On the last kilometer, on the sidewalk, a Greek emigrant appeared next to Stelios. He fled next to him and supported the marathonber with exclamations: for Greece, Stelios! For their children! This inspired the athlete, he was the first to run to the finish line with the cry of For Greece!
Kiriakidis showed the time of 2.29.27 – the best time for Europe for the next 22 years.

When the favorite of Keli was reproached for defeat, the American replied: how could I win the race of such an athlete. I ran for myself, and he was for a whole country! The victory of Stelios made a splash. The Americans offered the US money and citizenship of the USA. He refused. When the US President Truman at the meeting asked him what gift he would like to receive, Stelios replied: – For himself – nothing. Help Greece.

Monument to Steelos Kiriakidis and Spiros Luis.

The first Marathon Olympicon tells Stelios the path to victory. The athlete stayed in America for a month, collecting help for the Motherland. His victory prompted the Americans and the Greek diaspora to raise significant funds. There were $ 250,000 (a huge amount at that time). The family of shipowners Livanos provided several ships for transporting assistance in Greece. This help was called the “Cyriakidi package.” When on May 23, Stelios Kiriakidis arrived in Greece, millions of people met him as a hero.

During the celebrations upon his arrival, at the columns of the Temple of Zeus Olympic, Kiriakidis said with tears in his eyes: I am proud that I am a Greek!

For the first time since the occupation in honor of Stelios Kiriakidis, Acropolis was illuminated.

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