Stefanos Sarafis
Who was Stefanos Sarafis?
Hellenic Army officer, one of the leaders of ELAS during the Greek Resistance
Biographical data adapted from Wikipedia’s article on Stefanos Sarafis (CC BY-SA 4.0).
Biography
Stefanos Sarafis was born on October 23, 1890, in Trikala, Thessaly, Greece. He studied at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens and then started his military career in the Hellenic Army. His early years as an officer coincided with a time when Greece was involved in a lot of military activity, like the Balkan Wars and World War I, which shaped his career and political views in the years that followed.
Sarafis moved up the ranks in the Hellenic Army and became linked with the republican and Venizelist movements that split Greek military and political life during the interwar years. His republican views put him at odds with the monarchist groups in the military, and he was impacted by the political purges that regularly unsettled the Greek armed forces in the 1920s and 1930s. His role in the failed Venizelist coup in March 1935 led to his court-martial and imprisonment, which interrupted his otherwise prominent military career.
After the Axis occupied Greece in 1941, Sarafis became a key figure in the armed resistance. Initially caught by ELAS, the military branch of the left-wing National Liberation Front (EAM), he was convinced to join them rather than stay captured. By 1943, he was appointed commander of ELAS, acting as its military head while Aris Velouchiotis was the leading guerrilla field commander. Sarafis worked to instill military discipline and organization in what started as a loosely coordinated group, turning ELAS into the largest resistance army in occupied Greece.
His position put him at the heart of the rivalry between resistance groups, particularly the conflict with EDES, led by Napoleon Zervas. Sarafis took part in talks with British liaison officers, including Brigadier Eddie Myers, and signed the Plaka Agreement of February 1944, which aimed to reduce fighting among Greek resistance groups. He also attended the Lebanon Conference in May 1944 with the EAM-ELAS delegation. After Greece's liberation and during the December 1944 clashes in Athens between ELAS and British-supported government forces, Sarafis remained a key figure in the communist-aligned political and military arena.
After the Greek Civil War ended in 1949, Sarafis faced tough times, as many former ELAS officers were legally persecuted or socially marginalized in postwar Greece. He wrote a memoir about his resistance experiences, which was published and translated into several languages, offering one of the most detailed firsthand accounts of ELAS operations from his perspective. Sarafis died on May 31, 1957, in Alimos Municipality, near Athens, at 66.
Before Fame
Stefanos Sarafis grew up during a crucial time in Greek history. The country was expanding its territory through the Balkan Wars of 1912 and 1913 and later got involved in World War I. At that time, a military career was a clear path to professional success in Greece, and Sarafis’s studies in Athens complemented his officer training. Politically, the years between the wars were significant, as the Greek officer corps split into Venizelist and royalist factions, a divide that influenced the careers and futures of many soldiers.
Sarafis sided with the Venizelist republicans, which helped his career during republican times but caused major setbacks when the royalists were in power. His role in the unsuccessful coup of 1935 ended his traditional military career, leading to imprisonment and making him a minor figure in the official Greek scene. The disorder during the Axis occupation, however, gave him another chance to take command in a completely different political setting.
Key Achievements
- Appointed commander of ELAS, the largest armed resistance organization in occupied Greece during World War II
- Transformed ELAS from a fragmented guerrilla force into a structured military organization capable of large-scale operations
- Served as a signatory to the Plaka Agreement of 1944, a significant diplomatic effort to unify Greek resistance factions
- Represented EAM-ELAS at the Lebanon Conference of May 1944, a critical political gathering of Greek resistance and government-in-exile figures
- Authored a detailed memoir of the Greek Resistance that was translated into multiple languages and became a major historical source
Did You Know?
- 01.Sarafis was initially captured by ELAS guerrillas in 1943 and was being held as a prisoner when he was persuaded to switch sides and accept command of the very force that had detained him.
- 02.His memoir, published under the title 'ELAS: Greek Resistance Army,' was translated into English and became one of the primary source documents for historians studying the Greek Resistance.
- 03.Despite serving as ELAS's formal military commander, Sarafis frequently clashed with the more ideologically militant Aris Velouchiotis over questions of military discipline and strategy.
- 04.Sarafis was a signatory to the Plaka Agreement of February 1944, a rare attempt to broker a ceasefire between the rival Greek resistance organizations ELAS and EDES.
- 05.He had been court-martialed and stripped of his rank following the failed Venizelist coup attempt in March 1935, making his later appointment as a Major General in ELAS a dramatic reversal of fortune.