Antonia Tselekis

American-born, Antonia was a small child when her family went back to Zoupena. She married Ioannis Tselekis, handsome and educated, and they had five children between 1931 and 1942.

In 1947 a jeep carrying the paramilitary leader Ioannis Pavlakos pulled up at the village café, and Ioannis was ordered in at gunpoint while his two young sons watched from behind the trees. He was shot with other men in the cemetery at Vamvakou and buried in a mass grave.

Months later Antonia, 38, went to Athens to arrange passage to America. As a U.S. citizen she hoped to get her children out. The night she came home, informers told Pavlakos. He came to the door and took her away, then her brother Panos (opens in a new tab), who had gone to look for her, then her sister Eleni (opens in a new tab). All three were killed.

Her five children, aged five to sixteen, were left with their grandmother Stamata (opens in a new tab). The three youngest were later brought to America by their uncle George (opens in a new tab).