Evert Angelos

Evert, Angelos Glykas, Mihail Vranopoulos, Dimitrios Angelos Evert (b. 1897) was chief of the Athens police from 1941 to 1944. He cooperated with Dimitrios Vranopoulos, chief of the police in Patras and later in Pireas, and with Mihail Glykas, police commander of the Sixth Dixtrict of Athens in the rescue of Greek Jews. Many of the Jews of Athens lived within the jurisdiction of the Sixth District and the Jewish community offices were located there, too. Evert was inspired by the public denunciation of the persecution of the Jews by Archbishop Damaskinos*. Despite the risk of arrest and severe punishment, the police officers distributed genuine identity cards with Greek names to all Jews who requested them. It is estimated that they issued thousands of documents, thus enabling many Jews to move from one place to another and entitling the bearers to food rations along with the rest of the Greek population. They could have been denounced at any time by their fellow policemen or by Gestapo spies. Among the Jews who were rescued was Sam Elie Modiano, former editor of the journal “Le Progrès” in Thessaloniki. He had escaped to Athens with his family in July 1943, and was pursued by messengers of the Rosenberg Commando, who searched for him, his wife, Nella, and their children, Elie and Marios. In Athens, Modiano headed a group of 400 Jewish refugees from Thessaloniki. He managed to get two schools in which to accommodate them. However, during a meeting with Evert, he was instructed to change his accomodations in Athens and to inform all the other refugees to leave at once and find hiding places all over the capital so that the Rosenberg Commando would not discover them. Evert also cooperated with the Resistance in order to smuggle out the chief rabbi of Athens, Rabbi Barzilai, and his family, to the mountain area, where he was under its protection. As for the Modianos, thanks to the papers issued to them by Evert and signed by him, they could live quitely intheir hideout in Athens until the liberation in October 1944. The 20-year-old son, Elie Modiano, was able to leave Greece for the Middle East, where he joined the Royal Greek Air Force. Modiano’s gratitude and sincere admiration for Evert and his police commanders, Vranopoulos and Glykas was maintained after the war, along with many other Jews who were saved by their courageous actions. On July 8, 1969, Yad Vashem recognized Angelos Evert, Dimitrios Vranopoulos, and Mihail Glykas as Righteous Among the Nations.