Lela Karagianni - Greek resistance leader during WW2

 

Lela Karagianni (June 24, 1898 - September 8, 1944)

Born in Euboea, she was a Greek resistance leader during WW2.

A wife and mother of 7 children during the Axis occupation of Greece, she helped organise resistance movements against the occupying Italians and Germans.

Karagianni, along with her husband and older sons joined the resistance movement of Napoleon Zervas, leader of the National Republican Greek League “Ethnikos Dimokratikos Ellinikos Syndesmos” (EDES), the most important and effective Greek resistance movement of the War.

Lela formed her own group within the wider movement, code-named "Bouboulina" in reference to Laskarina Bouboulina, a female Greek captain of the Greek Revolution in 1821.

Her group distributed information, smuggled wanted individuals into areas controlled by Greek forces, forged documents and coordinated with the British to disrupt the Axis occupation.

In July 1944, Karagianni was arrested in Athens by the German occupation forces. She was then tortured by the Nazis and then taken to the Haidari concentration camp on the outskirts of Athens.

Lela Karagianni was executed by firing squad on the morning of 8 September 1944, little more than a month before Germany’s retreat and evacuation of Athens. Her husband and children all survived the War.

A bust of Lela Karagianni is situated in central Athens and a plaque now stands outside the family’s home in Athens, which is a protected monument. 

Hellenic Patriotism