Many shops close immediately, others begin to hide food and basic necessities, while financial transactions are limited to the absolutely necessary. In the latter, the closing of the Stock Exchange and the freezing of deposits contribute, while the war… capital controls impose the permitted limit of withdrawals to reach only 5% of the deposit per month, up to the amount of 10,000 drachmas.
Shelters
Alarms gradually become part of everyone’s daily life, while shelters replace, for as long as necessary, the role of the neighborhood. The complete lack of shelters leads to the christening of warehouses as such, while the Ministry of Public Security gives instructions for the creation of new air defense areas in the bowels of the city.
The only entertainment in the capital is the cinemas and theaters, which are enlisted in the national goal of raising the morale of the citizens’ rear guard. Cinematic current affairs play the role of a news bulletin of the time with images of the Front, while the need to satirize the opponent creates queues at the only four theaters that remain open in the capital giving double performances. Many times, in fact, the two arts are confused with each other, with the people in the cinema deifying the Greek Army, while the theaters play the role of newsmen, with the actors announcing the latest news from the stage.
Offering
Decisive for the morale but also the hard daily life of the frontline fighters are the touching offerings of the people behind: Wool from the pillows, knitting yarn, blankets, food, financial offerings, “The soldier’s shirt”, the women, the Church , the elders, the children, all together make up a huge majority of civilian warriors, without whom the epic of the Greco-Italian war might not have been written.
The offers from everyone in the national race are touching. From ordinary people, who offer rings, crosses and chains, businesses, who give part of their profits, to scientists, who offer their voluntary work. A certain doctor, in fact, named Synodinos, hands over his entire private clinic in Piraeus “for the sake of the state until the end of the war”.
In order to limit profiteering, the Undersecretary of Trade Law hastened from the very first day of the declaration of war to talk about the sufficiency of goods on the market, calling on consumers to buy only the absolutely necessary. At the same time, however, he threatens them saying that he will not allow them to buy excessive supplies, because then they will be court-martialed. At the same time, a maximum selling price is imposed on a number of basic necessities, such as bread and pasta.
As happens in all the first days of wars, in this one too the citizens face a series of immediate prohibitions, resulting in a delay in adapting to the new reality. The declaration of martial law leads to the immediate prohibition of public and private transport from sunset to sunrise, since the lights can give a target to the opposing Air Force. Restrictions on the use of lighting on the roads lead to several fatal traffic accidents, while those who do not observe the correct lighting in cars – covering the lights with blue paint – are penalized by taking away their driving license.
Instructions
Darkening is also imposed on home lighting, with offenders threatened by martial law: “There is no more criminal practice than the careless negligence of some people in allowing even a little light to shine through their windows. They turn their house and the entire city into a target for enemy planes. But these frivolous people must know that they are dealing with Martial Law.”
From the first day of the war, the telephone company asked its customers to “…don’t call unless absolutely necessary. You are dangerously disrupting the communication of public services.”
The Water Company informs that in the event of a bombardment, it is possible that there will be major damage to the water network, the repair of which will take many hours or days. That is why it asks consumers to keep drinking water in closed containers and to dispose of any closed containers in their possession in the neighborhood. The Deputy Ministry of Security goes a step further by prohibiting any kind of loud sound, even bells: “The sound of a factory siren or whistle, the ringing of church bells, Holy Monasteries, cemeteries, schools, railway stations, vehicles of carrying out the cleanliness of the city, as well as any other medium causing sound. These will be used exclusively for the transmission of the alarm”.
Hunting… spies
Along with the above, a wave of “spy-phobia” is sweeping the country from one end to the other. Everyone is looking for possible spies of the enemy, with the citizens’ discussions converging on the fact that now “we also have to watch our own shadow”. This climate is maintained by the creator of the Deputy Ministry of Public Security, Konstantinos Maniadakis, who floods the newspapers with unsigned press releases like the one below, which is a representative sample of the introversion of the days.
“Citizens and soldiers. Silence and attention. Don’t trust anyone. On the street, in the cafe, on the tram, in the office, in the factory where you work, the spy is lurking. We don’t know if he is our friend, we don’t know if he is some stranger, kind and supposedly patriotic, who asks you: “What class do you belong to?” Where are you going;” and other such questions. Greek citizens. Avoid unknown companies, avoid losers more, who are worse than the foreign spy, because they live in the hope of saving their own at a critical moment. Danger lurks.
Do not trust any stranger. Do not talk to strangers, who talk to you about other issues, unrelated to the country’s military organization, to end up where the unknown friend of the moment wants. Avoid e.g. to answer strangers, and even acquaintances, who ask you how many ships are in port, where they are headed and if more are expected. You shut your mouth when they talk to you about the movement of the railways. The enemy lurks in order to gather valuable information, which to you does not seem worth talking about, and yet he will use it to strike our country from safety. And for any other information related to the war, everyone’s motto: Attention. Silence. That means be careful.”
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