Mihalos Ilias & Mihalou Katerina

Mihalos, Ilias Mihalou, Katerina Ilias Mihalos owned a winery in Mihaleika a small village in the mountains above Patra, a port city at the northern end of the Peloponnesos. In September 1943, following the Italian surrender to the Allies, the Germans arrived in Patra, and immediately began implementing anti-Jewish measures against the Jewish community, which then numbered about 300 people. Victor Velelli contacted one of his Greek friends, a colleague in the hiking club in Patra and a relative of Ilias Mihalos, and asked if Mihalos would be willing to help the Velellis. Mihalos agreed. Victor came to the village with his parents, his brothers, Joseph and Emanuel and Emanuel’s wife, Emily, and their two young daughters, Josephine and Regina. Despite the grave danger, Mihalos provided the Velellis shelter in a peasant cottage consisting of two rooms. His wife, Katerina, the mother of three young children, was hospitable and helped Mihalos in his endeavors. Early in 1944, the Germans came to Mihaleika, seeking to destroy a British intelligence unit located there that was transmitting information to the Allies. Forewarned, most of the farmers left, and, when they returned, they found that the Mihalos family’s house had been burned down. Homeless, the family moved into the peasant house where the Velellis were staying. They lived together, each family occupying one room. The village was evacuated once more around April 1944, when the Germans arrived for the second time. There was a British cache of explosives in Mihaleika, which was used by the Greek underground to sabotage German installations. When the Germans discovered it, they used the explosives to completely destroy the village. The two-room cottage was now gone, too, and new shelters were arranged. When, finally, the war was over, the civil war began, and both the Mihalos and the Velelli families suffered. Eventually, the two families migrated to the United States and settled near Baltimore. Thefamilies remained close and dedicated friends, sharing holidays and special occasions together. On October 23, 1984, Yad Vashem recognized Ilias and Katerina Mihalos as Righteous Among the Nations.