 Nicholas wake up Wake up Nicholas Italy is just delivered an ultimatum Stop shouting. It's three in the morning. What did you say? The Italian government has just delivered an ultimatum to Greece What for don't ask me they gave us three hours to answer wait a minute. I'm coming right now. Bring your gun Nicholas Greece is already answered Italy the answer is no Listener four years ago war came to the people of Greece This is how it came you may believe me for I know My name is Katina Paxinou to some of you. I'm known as an actress, but I speak to you now as a citizen of Greece Listener before that night of four years ago you if you had come to my house in Athens I would have given you a cake of sesame and honey and fetch you a cup of wine On my table there would have been for you a dish of the sweet olives of Patras or the pointed olives of Kalamata and Perhaps outside that would have been the cry of a boy selling jasmine a cry. I knew well and liked very well This was before the war and now it is all gone In Patras now the olive tree lies in the grove splintered by the bomb The boy selling jasmine is dead Much that was listener is gone and much that remains is Starved and bitter and pale with hate Now you shall hear a story a story of one called Andreas While I did not know him doubtless. He lived before his story lives and it is a story of Greece The NBC University of the Air presents through the courtesy of the Hollywood Victory Committee Brian Don Levy starring in the title role of the story of Andreas with Dana Andrews as Tomatis and Skippy Homier as Petros This is chapter four of the current historical series We came this way and as a special public service presentation of the national broadcasting company and its affiliated independent stations cooperating with the Greek war relief association We bring you now from Hollywood the story of Andreas My name is Andreas Dritzes Before the war I was a teacher and then when the war came to us. I became a soldier It made people smile for I was the kind of a man born to die from stepping on a rusty nail. I Tell you this so that you will not expect me to be a hero over there Where the coast rises up in the broken hilltops and the mountains sit like a saddle between the plains is my village I think it's the finest village in all of Greece If you should look now you will see a man lighting a wood fire or tethering his mule His name is Tomatis He is a very good fellow Always ready to share his loaf of bread with you and his cheese of goat's milk and to give you a drink of the sweet Water that flows from his spring Perhaps I am wrong for saying this because Tomatis is dead and the water in his spring now tastes of metal I shall begin with Tomatis one day. He came to my school house and he brought with him a boy Teacher this is my boy Petrus. I have brought him to the school for you to teach Hello Petrus Answer the teacher Petrus. He is much skinnier than you said father I see you have taught him to speak Tomatis. What else have you taught him? To read the sky for weather. Ah good thing to play a read pipe Attend the mountain sheep both good things Tomatis and to swear a little and to pray a little good things also Why have you brought him to me? I want him to have learning what kind of learning Tomatis lawyer learning Teacher learning doctor too much too much just a little Well, how much is a little Tomatis? Well, I don't know. Well, shall I teach him history? Of course our history goes back 3,000 years Boy must have a long memory for that Petrus. Yes, try to understand me Petrus Everywhere you set down your foot in Greece You stand in another man's footprints scratch away the cover of the earth and you find some other man's bones some other man's music Some other man's art Those men Petrus are your ancestors It's proper that you should learn about them because they weren't ordinary men. Now that's just what I wanted to say Do you want to learn about what I've told you Petrus? Oh, I've never been to a real school before all right He answers well, I'll take him That is how Stomatis brought him and how Petrus and I became teacher and pupil reading in the ancients Do you see anything wrong in that and yet it was wrong? We were studying gentleness in the 20th century of the Christian era. We should have known better shouldn't we We looked into the Attica sky and saw it clear blue and we did not look for bombers and so we were fools At Siva we saw the almond trees and blossom and we were fools again For we did not dig a trench or measure the ground for landmines still in the months that past Petrus learned his lessons well We're done again Petrus. Do you know what that means? Yes, it was inscribed on the temple of Apollo at Delphi It means nothing in excess Petrus what according to Thales is the most difficult of all things to know thyself And what is the easiest to give advice What is an orderly state Petrus give me solons answer Petrus It is a well constituted state when the people obey the rulers and the rulers obey the laws So before the dead heroes of Athens and said and when the moment came they were reminded to resist and suffer Rather than to fly and save their lives They ran away from the world of dishonor, but on the battlefield their feet stood fast Petrus never forget that Petrus learned his lessons well in the days when the enemy was making plans to point his cannon and to let fall his bombs but Petrus learned and that was my happiness and then one day wet with rain and cold Stomatis opened the radio Since 5 30 this morning fascist Italian military forces have been attacking our advanced units on the Greco-Albanian frontier Our forces are defending the national soil planes have bombed Patras and the airdrome of Athens Plains have also been reported over the bridge of the Corinth Canal a general mobilization of all able-bodied men has Been ordered by the Greek general staff the action of the fascist Italian government has come to a shock as all who Think there is nothing more to say Yes, I Think I will go upstairs and take down. I'm not this wait wait They are a nation of 45 million and how many are we only seven million Then to best them will be more credit to us. No Come Petro. I will show you how to clean a rifle From this time the boy Petrus no longer spoke of Thales And Solon Instead he learned to clean a rifle It was a tragedy a greater tragedy than you think We wanted only to be left alone and to live peacefully in our own small corner of the world And this they wouldn't let us do and so we fought back I think it is not wrong to say that we fought like men Defending our soil our homes our freedom We fought like the Greeks of old At Thermopylae first we stopped the enemy and then we threw him back and then Enemy was pushed beyond our boundaries and then it was we who attacked What are you doing here teacher I can also wear a uniform of tomatoes. It's a bad fit Perhaps of your shoulders once or now Well there wide enough for the work. I have to do stomatis. I'm in the medical core Watch out Hold your head lower next time teacher. They'll have to bury the medical core Yeah, thanks. The matis. Oh The matis I have news of Petros. Yes, he's in uniform. He told them he was 17 may he live But it's a terrible lie. Oh You're really pleased aren't you? Yes I'd like to spank him, but I'm pleased See that he stays out of trouble teacher. He's still a little boy Promise me. Yes. Thanks teacher On the appearer sector bordering Albania. There are mountains Mountain six thousand feet in the sky We fought there Winter set in but we fought there The hail came stinging like shot in the sides of the mountain which had been seemed and leathery like the face of an old man We're now icy and marked with debt And it was here in this fantastic place that our Greek soldiers in their one thin blanket and their ragged shoes sent the enemy whimpering to the plains and Then when we were proudest and gloried most in our triumph, there was more news What's up Vasas is our hero Castro taken. Yes, but that's not the news and it's remedy Remedy is fallen, but it's also but that's not the news The Germans are moving into Bulgaria Tourists have arrived tourists in field gray boots Vasos you're a liar. No, it's the truth You're a filthy liar Vasas. We've won our war not against the Germans. So what is not if they attack us father in heaven We can't do it alone We're tired. We're frostbitten. We're hungry. Someone must help us easy Stomatis the British are with us not many but more will come and some have already died What's the use of it all? What is the good Vasas if the Germans are in Bulgaria? They soon will be in Greece And what have we done to deserve it? That's our reward stomatis. We've beaten Italy 7 million against 45 million and because we've won we lose The order is to retreat stomatis Retreat from the fushish Italians whom we have defeated That was our humiliation To triumph over an enemy and then to retreat before the vanquished to retreat To meet new danger from the north and I marched back with the soldiers of Greece Soldiers frost bitten and swollen with cold and half naked and hungry and I saw men weep With utility and I heard men curse who had never cursed before Then for a while we hoped It was told us that the Germans were massing in Romania and in Bulgaria But there was still time to hope for the Germans had not marched and the British lorries and the British gun carriers Covered with Greek flowers We're rolling up from the south And then it fell Germany must invade Greece in order to drive out the English It was a monstrous lie and we knew it and someone had to answer the lie on March 8th 1941 George Vlahos answered in a letter to Ed Eddolf Hitler Who made the British come to Greece your excellency? It was not us. It was the Italian fascists Now you wish us to say farewell to those whom the same Italians brought here alright Let us say it but to whom to the living But how can we throw out the dead? Those who died on our mountains Who at a time when their own country was in flames came to Greece and fought there? Died there and found their graves there Listen your excellency There are these which cannot be done in Greece and that is one of them We cannot throw out either the living or the dead We will throw out no one your excellency will stand where we are by their side There is an infamy in that sound It is not the bomb that falls which breeds the agony but the bloody naked fist Which is powerless to answer There is a degradation in empty hands a degradation great enough to crush a soul And our hands were so empty Mark it down then the fatal month of april 1941 The month of the beginning of our agony and our hate Desperate fighting has begun in the struma valley the frontier forts of Thrace is surrounded by german troops no surrender fighting is still going on German divisions have marched through the Vardal Valley to occupy Salonica Greek troops in eastern Macedonia are cut off The enemy has broken through the monastery gap Greek and British imperial troops are expected to make a stand at historic Palmapele The general staff announced today that further british reinforcements may not be expected because of the grave turn of events in Egypt Citizens of Greece prime minister Corisius has taken his own life The king and the new prime minister Tzudoros have abandoned Athens for the island of Crete We appeal to all greek citizens to facilitate the withdrawal of the british and imperial forces The british had fought magnificently And now we fought a rearguard action so that they could withdraw to fight again Athens which had greeted them with flowers now said goodbye with flowers And from the beaches of rafina and rafte from the harbor of naft leon from echara and the Soronic gulf the troops of our allies left the soil of Greece and Greece stood grim and pale And spent and turned slowly to see the nazi come into Athens and hoist the swastika Over the acropolis. They're coming andraeus the Germans know how to cry tomatoes. All right Petrus stay close to me. Yes father I hate them andraeus. I never thought I could hate like I hate them Easy stomates. They'll shoot you for less Tell them what you told me Petrus The fascist Italians are to occupy Greece for them They promise not to let the Italians in the Germans promise softly stomates. Please softly There will be worse than promises broken. Tell him the rest Petrus The Bulgarians are to take place in eastern Macedonia They're coming He means you Petrus. Do you hear me boy? Answering Petrus his father He's my teacher. So you talking Can you shine shoes boy? My shoes are dirty Shine them for me all the polish in Athens couldn't take the dirt from your shoes. So I could have you whipped for that But I forget I heard it Yeah Shine my shoes. You're an Italian aren't you? I don't like your tone. Oh, I meant no offense, but I suddenly remembered what an Italian named Cicero said to another Italian named Quintius Where? I think the boy here knows it too. He was once a good scholar for his age say Say it for him Petrus. Remember Quintius that it is the Greeks to whom you're giving orders That's enough. He hasn't finished. Uh, just a moment go on Petrus The Greeks have civilized all people by teaching them gentleness and humanity And to whom Rome is indebted for those lights which he possesses now, sir If you will excuse us, we must go besides Petrus doesn't seem to own a shoe brush To an Italian this could be said For an Italian still remembers to be ashamed But then the Germans took over Perhaps they wanted all the plunder for themselves I cannot say but the SS troops and the tank men with the insignia of skull and crossbones proclaiming their deliberate pride of horror They came and settled like a plague of locusts and drove the Italians out They ate our meager stores of grain and we starved We stood in hunger outside the restaurants of Athens and we saw our enemy within Feasting on lamb and your horde and halva they sat and ate and joked as if they were men And outside famine stared in through the windows of the restaurant Will you help an old man? I have nothing for myself How can I help you? Only a bit of bread please the crumb of a crust old man When I was a soldier they paid me two drachma a day Do you know how much a pound of bread is now? Eight hundred drachma then give me an olive I haven't any to give the stone of an olive then if I had it I would give it Yeah, I know I only ask because I have nothing better to do You know, that's worse for you than for me. No, no old man. It isn't yeah, believe me. I know The old and the very young are weak. They die easily We faint in the street and where we faint we die Perhaps tomorrow the cart will pick me up No, it's worse for you than for me But thank you for not scolding And please sir, will you help an old man? We took an oath to remember this And even in our hunger We began to make the Germans pay They occupied the land, but we were undefeated The workers came to the factories and folded their arms The peasants refused to till their fields and there was more They walked in twos and then in threes and then in squads, but they no longer dared to go alone And if we were in a prison They were also in a prison for a jailer must always watch and is not free to come and go And then They lost their patience These people have only one aim to undermine the foundation of the new order in Greece And the harbor appears there is already a swedish ship loaded with food and medicine from america Under our very noses. They flaunt us at the aid received from these sentimental interfering fools The question must now be raised. Is it worthwhile to go on being ceremonious with the greek people? They decided it was no longer worthwhile They decided also that while a man starves to death surely He also starves slowly And so they found quicker ways In the Trama Kavala district of Macedonia The bulgarians massacred the people of five towns and villages Every man woman and child A man can comprehend one sick child dying of the troop But who can comprehend many numbers? Perhaps this is what we became to you in the outer world A gloomy statistic I hope not There is nothing more for me to say except this My friend stomatis was a good man and generous It happened one day in the winter of starving that he came upon a woman Named elenye I've stolen some milk for you elenye Thank you stomatis It's not altogether too late. What do you mean? Last week I had four children All four need milk But there was scarcely food for one Yes elenye I had to choose stomatis They were three little girls And a boy all right elenye. I know what you mean. Oh, I don't mind telling him I don't mind anything anymore I put the three little girls to bed I covered them as best I could and Then I saw them die They felt no pain Only weakness You gave the boy the food didn't you? Yes Yes, I gave the boy the food If he lives stomatis He will grow up to be a soldier My friends stomatis told this to me There were no tears in his eyes for there are times when there should be no tears Just as there are times when one must fight to die Stomatis who was a good man and my friend Went out of the city with a band of gorillas Then one day A railway bridge on the Athens Thessalonica line was dynamited and on another day my friend stomatis was shot by the Germans They brought his body to us And there was no weeping And with his body there was the body of Asos and others that I once knew Then the boy Petros whom I had taught and loved like my own son Uncovered his little head Stood over them and spoke So simply They determined that the hazard of their lives to be honorably avenged and to leave the rest They resigned to hope their unknown chance of happiness But in the face of death they resolved to rely upon themselves alone And when the moment came they were reminded to resist and suffer rather than to fly and save their lives They ran away from the world of dishonor But on the battlefield their feet stood fast And in an instant they passed away from the scene Not of their fear But of their glory We just heard Brian Don Levy on the title role of the story of Andreas With Dana Andrews as stomatis and Skippy Homaris Petros Madam Katina Paxanal was heard from New York in the story of Andreas On the NBC university of the air historical series we came this way These stars were presented through the courtesy of the Hollywood victory committee We return you to New York and to Katina Paxanal Four years ago we came war came to the people of Greece Now at this later hour Greece is almost free of Nati Athens is free The Greek flag flies over the Acropolis once more I speak to you now simply humbly Prayfully Let Greece's allies come not to unoccupied land But to a land whose people were the first in the world to show that steadfastness and courage Would halt the aggressor Let them not come as liberators for Greece has liberated herself The people of Greece ask for little that little is yours to grant They ask to be allowed to mold their own destiny without constraint or patronage They ask for justice In a time long ago Greece taught all other nations how to live And four years ago Greece taught those nations how to die And tonight I repeat the words of president Roosevelt It is more than fitting It is inevitable that as hopeless darkness is engulfing the ideas of Nazi barbarism The clear Greek air will once more be breathed by free men without fear of oppression And that the acropolis for 25 centuries a symbol of man's accomplishment in an environment of human liberty Will again be a beacon of faith for the future And these words of president Roosevelt translated for every freedom-loving person mean Greece is destined to live and will live Tonight's program was presented by the nbc university of the air in cooperation with the greek war relief association A member agency of the national war fund Not only for the listeners in this country But also for our servicemen and women overseas to be transmitted to them wherever they're stationed Through the armed forces radio service The story of andreas was written by martin wishengrad The music composed and directed by thomas paloso production was directed by richard tate and ira avary This is the national broadcasting company