Napoleon Zervas

Napoleon  Zervas,                                  ΝΑΠΟΛΕΩΝ ΖΕΡΒΑΣ

Born in Arta, May 17, 1891    Died in Athens, Dec 10, 1957

Section 4, Number 70

Humans have a wonderful capacity to believe in contradictions: Yuval Harari  (1)

Napoleon Zervas rests under his benign bust in a leafy section of the First Cemetery.  How one interprets his career might turn out to be more of a Rorschach test indicating the interpreter’s assumptions than a study of the man himself. He is most well known as the General Commander of EDES (The National Republican Greek League) from 1941-1945.  It was the second most significant resistance organization against the Axis Occupation of Greece.  He has been described as a patriot, a traitor, a hero, and a vindictive turn-coat. He was a Venizelist (2), a term denoting an anti-royalist with liberal sentiments, but in the manifesto of his party’s aims, he would promise to ruthlessly eradicate any opposition that stood in his path, - especially communists.

These contradictions are an accurate reflection of the times he lived in – an era when almost every aspect of Greek public life was fragmented into factions. One catalyst was the disastrous defeat of Greece and the burning of Smyrna in 1922 and the resulting population exchange that added 1.6 million souls to the population of Greece in a year. Dissatisfaction with the king was already on the boil with the election of liberal Eleftherios Venizelos in 1910, and made worse by the national schism (over which side to support during World War One) but the humiliating Smyrna defeat added a very dissatisfied and fragmented military to the mix and this would lead to a series of on-off dictatorships (some supporting the monarchy and some not) that did not end until 1974, - all this giving plenty of opportunity for ambitious colonels to either take over or support a take-over by equally ambitious politicians.

From the time he joined the army in 1910, Napoleon Zervas was a player in the Greek drama, although not a major one until World War Two catapulted him into a role in the Greek resistance with a script which was not entirely written at the outset and which most critics would claim was beyond his abilities. They say that at first he was a reluctant warrior although he looks right at home in wartime photographs in the mountains of Epirus.

Perhaps this ease is a nod to his famous Souliot ancestors who knew a thing or two about guerrilla warfare.

  

His Life:

Napoleon was born in Arta. His father was a shoe maker with a lot of relatives. The Zervas family belonged to one of the famous Souliot clans who had for years claimed an area between Ioannina and Parga during the Ottoman occupation and who had fought in the Greek War of Independence. The name ‘Napoleon’ was likely bestowed on an ancestor during the time when the French controlled the Ioanian Islands and were supporting the Souliots.

He graduated from high school in Arta in 1907 and enrolled in Law at the University of Athens but quit to join the Greek Army in 1910. There he found a suitable niche for his talents and fought in both Balkan Wars. During this period he had became an enthusiastic supporter of liberal leader Eleftherios Venizelos who had, with army support, been elected Greek prime minister the very same year he had joined the army.

When Venizelos disagreed with the King’s pro-German stance during World War One and set up his rival government in Thessaloniki, Zervas was one of the first to join Venizelos’ Provisional Government of National Defence  (Κυβέρνηση Εθνικής Αμύνης).  When the Venizelos faction prevailed and Greece joined the Allied cause, Zervas fought in that war too. In 1919 he became chief of Staff to Lieutanant General Dimitrios Ioannou who was in charge of the zone around Smyrna during that heady period when Greeks were so sure they would add the coast of Asia Minor to an already expanded Greece. By 1920, at the age of 29, he was promoted to the rank of Major.

Disaster after Disaster: 1920 to 1941

Venizelos unexpectedly lost the election in 1920, and army supporters like Zervas were purged from the military. He spent the time in self exile in Constantinople as a member of Venizelos’ Defense League (Venizelos himself went to Paris) and only returned to Greece after September1922 when Greek hopes in Asia Minor had turned to ashes along with Smyrna and career officer Nikolaos Plastiras had successfully launched an army revolution deposing King Constantine in favour of his father, King George.  

 Zervas returned to the army, this time as a lieutenant colonel. In 1924, Plastiras turned over the government to an elected National Assembly which ousted King George and ushered in the Second Hellenic Republic. This lasted until 1935 when King George was reinstated and pro-royalist Ioannis Metaxas quickly became a dictator with the blessing of the king and all pro-monarchists.

During the period after 1922, Zervas played a supporting role (3) more than once: he supported Plastiras and then another coup in 1925 by Theodoros Pangalos. For this last effort he was rewarded by being appointed Garrison commander of Athens as well as commander of the Second Battalion of the Republican Guards, a military group formed by Pangalos to ensure that his regime stayed put. In spite of all that Zervas supported yet another coup against Pangalos in 1926 and then, perhaps fatally for his future reputation, turned against that coup leader (Kondylis) a month later when he tried to disband the Republican Guards. The idea of a Republican Guard in place to ‘ensure’ a take-over’s success appealed to Zervas more than democracy. He may have considered himself a liberal but, like so many saviour-leaders during this period, he had no problem with the use of force to ensure success or quell the opposition. This time he overplayed his hand. He and his Battalion were opposed by government forces. Battles ensued in Athens. He was arrested and sentenced to life in prison.

If there is one thing that modern Greek history teaches you it is that nothing is permanent, particularly a politically motivated prison sentence. In 1928, when Venizelos again came to power, Zervas was not only released, he got a promotion: he became a Lieutenant Colonel – albeit a retired one.

 He was still under 40. (4)

A rigged pleblescite and the return of the king in 1935 followed by a dictatorship headed by royalist Ioannis Metaxas in August of 1936 jolted him out of retirement. An attempted coup by Venizelists led by  Nicolaos Plastiras as the figurehead was a failure, and all other attempts to oppose Metaxas were pre-empted by the regime’s relentless ruthlessness and efficient propaganda machine - and then by the Italian invasion of Albania. Zervas fought against the Italians and then, like Greeks of every political persuasion, was faced with the horrible reality of the German invasion and occupation.

Then Things Got Really Complicated: EDES vs EAM/ELAS

According to one source, Zervas had already started a political party during the late thirties called EDES (The National Republican Greek League), but most sources agree that EDES was formed in September of 1941 specifically to counter the German invasion. (To see parts of its manifesto, see (5))

 Again, Nikolas Plastiras, the old war horse who was palatable if not loved by monarchists, was taken out of mothballs (figuratively only; he remained in exile in France) as figurehead to give this resistance movement more credibility than Zervas who had changed sides once too often, could provide.

Here was the reality: in Greece after the German invasion: most political leaders and the royal family had fled the country for exile in either Egypt or London, leaving a vacuum that only EAM or ELAS, backed by the communist and other leftist parties were organized enough at the grass roots level to fill.

But the British did not trust the communists (if indeed their military wing were all communists – a doubtful hypothesis) and were looking for a more congenial group to offer their money and arms to.

1942:  Zervas with Eddie Myers then the head of the British Military Mission in Greece.

Although he was a staunch anti-royalist, Zervas did have the right anti-communist credentials for the task of providing a fighting counterweight to EAM-ELAS.  Certainly, royalists in exile would have seen EDES as the lesser of two evils.

According to some sources, he could be persuaded only by the promise of a lot of money to give up his comfortable life in Athens and head for the hills in Epirus in 1942 to start his resistance movement in earnest.

Zervas was known to enjoy the good life which, for him, included wine, women and cigars.

In spite of getting most of the British money and support, and one joint success with EAM-ELAS and the British to blow up the Gorgopotamos bridge in November of 1942, EDES and EAM-ELAS were at loggerheads as early as 1943 – each vying for the post-war heart and soul of a very divided population who probably just wanted it all to be over.   

Aris Velouchiotis of ELAS and Napoleeon Zervas of EDES were distant cousins. (There is a family resemblance.)  Aris’ mother was a Zervas although the two men had never met until the war started. Aris’ severed head ended up on a lamppost in the main square of Trikkala in 1945. Zervas fared better.

Zervas had blotted his copybook with his own followers by agreeing to support the King George II in March 1942 as a condition for British and government support in spite of his professed republican ideals.  This declaration marked EDES' slide towards a pro-monarchist stance.

Zervas never really managed to garner grass roots support except in Epirus and Aitolo-Acarnania where he had a large family of supporters. There were rumours that, towards the end of the occupation, the Nazis were actively working with EDES to defeat the more serious threat of EAM_ELAS. As a result, the word ‘collaborator’  would be one of the many adjectives used to describe Napoleon Zervas when the war was over.

The term mass –murderer has also been attached to his name by some over the killing of the Cham Muslims in Epirus by his followers in retaliation for their assistance to the Nazis during the occupation. (6)

 Zervas returned to being a politician in the last years of his life, founding a political party in 1946 and representing Ioannina in the Greek parliament.  In 1947, he would serve as Minister for Public Order although the American State Department were against that appointment because they suspected him of having collaborated with the Nazis. As minister of Public order, Zervas, true to the earlier promises of EDES’ manifesto ordered the mass arrest of communists. His heavy handed tactics probably created more leftists than they eliminated.

The Last Act

He withdrew from politics in 1951 but not before holding the portfolio of the Merchant Marine under the premiership of Sophocles Venizelos with whose party Zervas’ party had merged.

Sophocles Venizelos (left) and Napoleon Zervas (right)

Zervas had a life-long knack of always landing on his feet in an era when political loyalties were often blurred and events had a way of outrunning professed ideologies.

He died on 10 December 1957, in Athens.   

His funeral was held at the Metropolitan cathedral of Athens with all of the honours bestowed on Government Ministers (although he was not a minister), and he was buried at public expense in the First Cemetery.

His Funeral Cortege en route to the First Cemetery

Looking at that almost jolly face over his grave, I wonder about Zervas. Was he a hero, a villain, too ambitious, too fanatic, too opportunistic, or just a product of the temper of his times?  

Section 4, Number 70

The Map

Footnotes

(1) Yuval Harari: Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind p, 247

(2)  Charismatic Cretan Eleftherios Venizelos was Greece’s greatest politician during this era.

(3)  For some reason, the image of Polonius comes to mind. Like Polonius, he was the constant enabler behind the scenes but, unlike Polonius, he managed to survive for the full five acts!

(4) So many different army factions and officers were involved in the convoluted situation in Greece during the first three quarters of the 20^th century, that often offering early retirement with a pension to an officer who had backed the wrong horse, seemed like a good solution.

(5)  From Wikipedia: ΕΑΜ was founded on 27 September 1941  by representatives of four left-wing parties: Lefteris Apostolou  for the ΚΚΕ, Christos Chomenidis for the Socialist Party of Greece (SKE) ,Ilias Tsirimokos for the Union od People's Democracy (ELD) and Apostolos Vogiatzis for the Agricultural Party of Greece  (ΑΚΕ). ΕΑΜ's charter called for the "liberation of the Nation from foreign yoke" and the "guaranteeing of the Greek people's sovereign right to determine its form of government".

EDES was formed on September 9^th of the same year with the motto: "Faith in the Leader. All from the Leader. All for the Leader."  These are some points of its manifesto:

1.    To establish in Greece the Republican constitution, in a socialist form, independently of the outcome of the war.

2.    To uncover by all means and in a clear and undoubted manner the treason of King George II and the gang around him that styles itself the Dictatorship of the Fourth of August,

3.    To purge and renew from scratch the state mechanism in such a way that the land, air and sea army forces, gendarmerie and city police, judicial power, administration services of all kinds, bank institutions and also various organizations, get rid of any member who will not have demonstrated a National Republican socialist spirit certified by such acts that will inspire full and stable confidence in it. The purge must be such that if the need arises, as is the case with the gendermarie and the police having deviated from their target, in many cases also with judicial power, it will proceed to their full dissolution and their restructuring anew.

Of course, after the purges, the people would get a vote.

(6)  Chams (or Tsámidhes) were a significant group in Epirus - 20,000 strong, some say  who were Muslims and  of Albanian origins. Male members were interned by the Greek government as the war broke out in 1939 but were released by the Italians in 1941. Likely  many Chams did support the Axis. (Ethnic tensions such as this have played havoc with good intentions and principles so  often  in Balkan politics.)  Christopher Woodhouse, the head of the Allied Military Mission in Greece wrote:  “The Chams deserved what they got, but Zervas' methods were pretty bad - or rather, his subordinate officers got out of hand. The result has been in effect a shift of populations, removing an unwanted minority from Greek soil. Perhaps it would be best to leave things at that."