This book is about events that took place a long time ago but form a part of my family history and my life story.
Many people have written books about the Greek Civil War of 1946–49 and the Paidomazoma (‘child-gathering’) that resulted from the conflict. I wish to tell the true story as it happened: the events and atrocities of the civil war, the Paidomazoma and its results.
Likewise, I wish to help you to understand why many underage children were scattered around the world, far from their birthplace and their homeland, and never returned.
This is my story of growing up during and after the Civil War, but it is also the story of the Papadopoulos family; a proud and well respected Greek family. This is the story of how the family began in northern Greece, then became scattered by war and left with little hope of reunion. It would take a long time and a lot of work for the Papadopolous family to reunite – this is how it happened.