Manolis Mylonas, the son of Asia Minor refugees, was born and raised in Chania during the interwar period. His family lived in Splantzia, a major refugee neighbourhood in the heart of the city. They lived in a building with other refugees, one family per room. His family lived in the room next to Grandma Katerina, his paternal grandmother.
Katerina had arrived in Chania with her three children at the end of 1922. When they left their home in Souvoutzoukia, in Fokaia (Foça), she hid one key to the house under a rock and hung the other one around her neck. She thought that maybe she and her children would eventually return. Maybe her missing husband would be able to make his way back.
The key made it through a Çetes patrol which stopped them on the way to the sea where they escaped on boats. It travelled to Mytilini, Piraeus and, finally, Chania. When the family eventually settled down in Splantzia, Katerina hung it on the wall above her bed, next to the icon displays.
In spring 1941, Chania was heavily bombed by the Germans. The city’s residents, the Mylonas family among them, were forced to leave their houses. First, they tried to shelter in the underground water reservoir on Splantzia’s main square, but soon they had to leave the city entirely and seek shelter in the areas around Chania. When the battle ended, Manolis and his mother went back to check on their house. Splantzia had been devastated and many buildings had collapsed. The key, along with all the family’s belongings, had been buried under the rubble. ‘When we told grandma what had happened, she was not that sad about the house or our belongings. She was sad about the key. The first thing she said was that she should have taken the key with her when we left.’ The family had to restart the settlement process from scratch.
Years later, Manolis decided to record this memory and add it to the other narratives that preserve the refugee history of Chania.
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References:
Manolis Mylonas, Katerina Mylona. An uprooted woman from Fokaia in Chania. The key, self published, n.d.