Just ten years after the Asia Minor Disaster, in 1932, the Association of Asia Minor of Elefsina. Anniversary of one hundred years for the national tragedy and ninety years for the operation of the association, 2022 was the occasion for a review of historical memory through the digital narratives of the second and third generation of Greeks who were uprooted and experienced the refugee within their own homeland.

“The feeling of 1922 with digital media“, the program implemented with the assistance of EKPA professor emeritus, Michalis Meimaris and researcher Efis Giannou, aimed to create a repository of memory, an “ark” of experiences, as described on their website by the Asia Minors themselves, which it will convey the narrative of the collective trauma, through the individual journey, to the next generations.

“Whoever forgets his historical past has no future» says the secretary of the Association, Despina Oikonomou. She, along with six other members of the association, trained in digital tools, took on the task of mapping personalities whose narratives needed to be preserved, and made an open and honest call to the world of Eleusis: What does the Asia Minor Catastrophe mean for our collective ID card; Through the association’s events, in the local press, member updates and social media, Mrs. Oikonomou and the Association’s team, with the oldest member herself, 60 years old, and the youngest member a granddaughter of Asia Minor, 22 years old, collected with care and love the experiences of people of all ages.

“Our goal was not only people who are aware of the Asia Minor Disaster, we didn’t want that. We wanted everyone to tell us how they feel about 1922. Someone connected it to the event of the invasion of Cyprus, for example. We wanted to essentially unearth some memories of people who of course had this origin, but also some who had nothing to do with Asia Minor» explains Mrs. Economou.

Of the original group of those who expressed a desire to participate, no one withdrew. All narratives completed as planned. Even the most difficult ones. “We made small groups, or held individual meetings for people over 80 years old. Those we approached, no one refused. They heard it with great joy. At least I received a lot of love and emotion at the same time. I learned stories that I may have heard at a very young age, but somewhere in the back of my mind they had been lost and brought back to the surface by some older people” notes Mrs. Economou. One of the testimonies she recorded herself was of her uncle. “When my mother’s brother and his wife wanted to give me their digital narration, so we could record his voice, it took us more than 3 to 4 hours. As he remembered what his father had told him, he would cry, we would stop, we would start again. Of course, when we finished, when I played it for him and he heard it, I asked him “uncle, I’m sorry that I made it difficult for you”. He replied “No, you did well because there are some things that have to stay”. The older people who entered into the process of doing so, were also with the desire to leave behind a narrative» underlines Mrs. Economou. Her uncle wasn’t the only one who wanted to leave a message for the future.

“We have the digital narration of a grandmother, who, when we approached her, said to me, ‘I want to talk to you, my child, so that my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren can see it later.’ We need to find other people like that. I consider it a moral obligation of us, the younger generation, the third generation of Asia Minor, to find these few who are 80 years old and over, and to record them” she notes.

In 1922 “is a turning point for Hellenism. The Asia Minor Association of Elefsina, together with the Digital Storytelling team of the new technologies laboratory of the EKPA, responding to a call from the Ministry of Education and Culture, listened through digital means to the sentiment that indicatively possesses the citizens of this country 100 years latersays the emeritus professor, Michalis Meimaris. As he explains, the project, through various stages of trainings, meetings and work, resulted in “digital narratives in video format of a maximum of 3.5 minutes, created mainly in the safe environment of the story circle group. It is a context in which a climate of trust and the availability of narration and listening is created, a context in which the recall of experiences, experiences, hearings and embedded representations in the here and now of the collaboration with the animator, create a construction that runs through many sensory channels, calling the creator to symbolize all this content of his inner world about ’22. At the same time, these people, through the process of digital storytelling, stimulated skills such as empathy, self-immersion, technological and digital skills. Indeed, Mrs. Economou confirms that people even 80 years old showed a great interest in the part of becoming familiar with digital tools. Moreover, the ages of those who took part in the program ranged from adolescence to 89 years.

All of the narratives used original material from the family archives and the Association of Asia Minor of Elefsina. Remarkable is the fact of the care with which the participants treated their material, as reported by Mrs. Economou, which was perfectly preserved, such as letters, postcards, family heirlooms with a strong emotional charge and strong semiotics. “It brought back memories. They didn’t experience the events themselves, since the people who experienced them are dead, but it awakened the memories of their parents, grandparents. I take an example from my mother and her brother, who remembered things their parents had told them. The same happened with the others who created a digital narrative” points out Mrs. Economou.

Her family did not celebrate anniversaries related to the Catastrophe. Her grandmother preferred not to talk about what she had experienced. Her grandfather, however, wanted to tell them about his experiences. “I don’t hide that, when we were young when our grandfather talked to us about various things, we didn’t pay attention, because our mind was to go out and play. Of course, over the years, what has remained with me is how my grandfather endured. He had come to Greece in 1919 to join the Greek army and then fight in Asia Minor. He was captured by the Turks. How he endured the hardships, in the mountains where he had been taken prisoner. A day before he was to be executed, the decree came out, the order to exchange prisoners, and he escaped,” says Mrs. Economou. “I wonder how these people, going through the disaster of 1922, going through a world war, going through a civil war, they managed and they were with a smile on their face and with advice that you don’t even get from people who have fifteen degrees. It is a connection to the past and to the ancestors,” he adds.

The aim of the association is, in a second stage, to build in Elefsina, in the area of ​​the old settlement, a separate monument, in addition to the monument of the Asia Minor mother, where all these digital stories will be placed with QR, “so that everyone who passes by can to find them, to see them. And of course, let’s enrich this digital repository, not just 100 stories. Let’s continue, let the 100 stories become two and three hundred. Our desire is to talk with other Asia Minor associations, in order to be able to do something bigger together with them, outside the administrative boundaries of our region,” emphasizes the secretary of the Elefsina Asia Minor Association.

Already, every day on the Parliament channel, at 8:45-9:00 in the morning, some of the digital narratives are shown together with a short introduction by the emeritus professor Mr. Meimaris. Thus, the stories of Elefsina travel throughout Greece. Finally, they are all available on the website of the Association HERE