Radio Australia Today Editorial

Fires in Athens. My grandma’s house.

24 August 2009

I don’t know if I’ve told you story of my grandmother’s house in Athens.

It’s in a hilly place called Pendeli on the north-east outskirts.

My grandmother Olga was given the house in the second world war when the Germans were invading the country, and her employer, a european ambassador, was recalled back home for his own safety. Olga was working as a governess for his kids and just as he was leaving, he gave the Pendeli house to her, probably figuring that the Germans would take it anyway. It was a beautiful house perched on a hill, wth an outlook towards Athens. He left the house full of tasteful furniture and a car, his one generous move making Olga richer than she had ever been.

The complication was that Olga was working at the time for the Greek underground, and it was only a matter of months before the extremely efficient German intelligence services would catch up with her. When she was caught, she used her skills as an actress to plant enough doubt in their minds about her culpability, so instead of executing her, she was thrown in jail. When Olga was allowed out six months later she returned to Pendeli to find her house had been occupied by the Germans, who had taken everything out of it.

Still the house survived. It survived the war and even survived Olga.

With the news of the fires burning around Athens today, it seems that maybe the house has finally succumbed. The fire has burnt on the top of Pendeli, which is exactly where this house with the colourful history was placed.

The possible loss of one house is not the most important issue for Greece right now. The burning of the millions of trees, the lungs of Athens, will cause many more environmental problems, but if Olga’s house has gone, then that’s a part of my family’s life, and an interesting part of Athens’ history that has gone too.

– Phil