Papa Pando

Pando Papa was born in the village of Neret, Lerin in 1909. In 1929 he completed Lerin high school. He worked for a few years as the village postman. At that time he associated with the CPG. Two or three years before the Second World War he became a clerk for the Atinon Bank in Lerin.

Pando was a tall man, healthy and strong. On the Albanian front he served as a lieutenant of the Greek army and fought heroically against Mussolini's fascist hordes.

During the time of the Nazi occupation he was among the first bank clerks who organized into EAM. He was also a member of the committee of the EAM organization of the citizens and other servants of Greek Lerin. He worked decisively and with passion for the development of EAM in the town, but his wish was to join the ranks of ELAS.

One morning in May 1944 the Gestapo surrounded Pando's house. Leaping from wall to wall, he managed to escape and got to the village of his birth, Neret, and from there to the village Lageni where sat the seat of the regional committee of CPG and EAM. Pando arrived wearing his officer uniform and looking dangerous with a pistol in his hand. The next day he was in the 28th infantry regiment of ELAS and was made a battalion commander. The battalion commissar was the Macedonian Jane Chochov (Stojan) from Lerin, an old acquaintance of Pando's. The two Macedonian officers took part in many battles against the German occupiers. They fought courageously and they fell, one next to the other, in the big operations of the Germans against the IX division of ELAS in Western Macedonia.

From: For Sacred National Freedom: Portraits Of Fallen Freedom Fighters

© 2009

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