A time of pain, but also of hope. Separation from the motherland, but also brotherly love and memory for the innocent victims of all wars. This and much more – “Chronicle of 10 days”, which Agapi Moliviati-Venesi once wrote in the form of a diary, and now Mania Papadimitriou brings to the stage. “I sat in a cafe and read everything at once. The act of Agapi Moliviatis-Venesis, sister of Elias Venesis, to rush into the streets of the burning city to find and, if she can save her brother, the self-sacrifice and the limit of her love shocked me. And when the moment came when she had the extraordinary fortune to meet a man on the side of the enemy, who, instead of being her executioner, as one might expect, became her savior, I experienced such joy and surprise that I wept. This is a true story, evidence of life. I really felt that this story should be heard by as many people as possible,” the project director notes.

Agpeliki Karistina plays Agapi in the play, which will run from next Monday (17 October) at the Michalis Kakoyannis Foundation for six performances. Around her, Mania Papadimitriou herself, together with Vangelis Psoma, also plays the role of narrators, plus two melodic companions: Iro Saia and Marina Chronopoulou. “I saw the show in its first performance and Angelica’s performance touched me. It was like seeing your grandmother on stage,” Laura Moliviatis, Agapi’s granddaughter and daughter of former minister Petros Moliviatis, tells me.

And he continues: “From 1969 to 1972, we lived in Turkey, in Ankara, because of the work of my father, and then my grandmother often came to us. What struck me most was her refusal to speak Turkish. Then, in 1972, we went to Ayvali, and there she found her home, which, of course, is also the well-known home of Ilias Venezis today. I remember she knocked, the then Turkish residents opened the door, and as soon as we explained her story, they said: “Come in, this is your house.” She went to her room, to the old built-in closet, and there, in the depths, she dug out her notes, which she hid when she left at 22. When she died, I found a box with all her writings, among which were many poems, as well as letters to Kemaletin, the man who saved her then. So what is being said here is 100% true.”

This touching story, similar to other stories of many victims of the Holocaust, has come down to us a century later as knowledge and also as a lesson. “The truth is that a century later, one can read these testimonial stories with greater sobriety and objectivity, without prejudice and brackets, and perhaps better understand the reality of those moments,” says Ms. Papadimitriou.

His sister Ilias Venezis recorded in her diary how she and her family were saved during the catastrophe in Asia Minor.

She herself also comes from Asia Minor through her grandmother, who in her entire life never said a word about the Holocaust. “He only said: “We, my child, were friends with the Turks.” And when I asked “what happened next?” he did not answer, only said: “These are not children’s fairy tales.” The question of how, from one moment to the next, friends living in the neighborhood become enemies is very difficult; if its exact solution could be found, many wars could be stopped. This naive question, like the question of whether it is possible to remain a man in the middle of a war and not turn into a beast in order to survive, is fundamental not only for the catastrophe in Asia Minor, but also for any war, declared or undeclared, that has broken out, where peoples coexisted in multicultural place. Evidence helps to understand the deeper motives of human actions and unimaginable, but absolutely real condition. In addition to historical relics, they are also relics of a sociological, anthropological and psychoanalytic perspective on history and therefore on the collective traumas of peoples,” she adds.

As for what he would like to get from the viewers of the show, he replies the following: “I don’t know what someone who goes to listen to a story like this is looking for. But if he is asking for his soul to be healed of the uncertainty and fear that the media and all the information of our time gives us about the monster that is man and the evil that may be lurking inside him, this story will help him. No, we were not born monsters, and we are not all beasts. And this is as true as the terrible truths of the day. This true story is the Venezis family’s gift for a softer future with an emphasis on empathy and compassion. I think we all need this at least as a hope.”

“Chronicle of 10 days”, 17-18, 24-25, October 31 and November 1 at the IMC.