Weary from wandering the streets of Moudros, Ypsipyli leaned against a marble slab. She read out “Commander Port Officer Ioannis Arvanitakis Port Officer of Lemnos was executed by the Germans on 26-7-1942”.
Ioannis Arvanitakis joined the Coast Guard in 1931. When the Germans occupied the island in 1941, Arvanitakis remained the Harbormaster. The Germans received information that he had a radio transmitter and was smuggling those who resisted the occupiers to the Middle East. They searched for him all over Moudros, upsetting and threatening the villagers who were praying for their beloved Harbormaster. They found him in the village of Skandali, ready to board a submarine. They arrested him and tortured him mercilessly. His torture lasted for three days and nights and on 26 July he was strangled with a waist belt. He was buried in the cemetery of Moudros, where his marble tomb with a chiseled anchor still exists today. Moudros honors its Harbormaster every year with a memorial service at the monument erected in his honor in the harbor. Hero’s honors are paid to him by army squadrons.
