Karayanni Lela

Karayanni, Lela Up until World War II Lela Karayani was a housewife who lived with her seven children in Athens and had no involvement in politics. In April 1941 the German army invaded Yugoslavia and moved southeast to Greece. The country was divided between Italy and Germany, with Athens coming under the control of the Italians. That same year Lela Karayanni joined an underground cell of the Greek resistance movement EDES. The cell was code named Bouboulina and cooperated with British intelligence. Karayanni and her fellow resistance fighters falsified papers and helped smuggle people into the areas under the partisan control. Among the people that were helped by Karayanni were a number of Jews. Solomon Cohen, in a letter written in 1947 to Lela's husband, described her selfless help: "In the most dangerous days, when we thought all was lost and that there was no more hope for us, we turned to Mrs. Karayanni. We were in deep despair, and this was the very last resort… I will never forget the moment when she opened her door to us. This was at a time when even our closest friends avoided us. She hosted us in her home although she knew that she was already under heavy suspicion". Solomon Cohen, his wife Regina and his daughter Shelly (Cohen) Kounio (b. 1932), had fled from their native Salonika to Athens at a time when Athens was still relatively safe. However, when the Germans invaded the southern part of Greece in September 1943, the Cohen family decided to disobey the orders and not to register, and went into hiding. In April 1944 they were desperately looking for a safe place and arrived at Karayanni's home. Karayanni hid them for some time, and then helped them find a better place. Leon Idas, born 1925, had gone to school with Karayanni's son, Nelson. When the Germans occupied Athens, Leon decided to leave the city and join the partisans. Lela Karayanni provided him and another youngster with false papers. She also prepared false papers for Leon'smother. Unfortunately the false papers did not save Mrs. Idas and she was captured in her hiding place. On July 1944 Lela Karayanni was arrested by the Germans. She was executed two months later, in September 1944. On September 13, 2011 Yad Vashem recognized Lela Karayanni as Righteous Among the Nations.