Echoes from the Cobblestones

Nicholas A. Kefalides recalls a time when the heavy boots of invading armies echoed off the cobblestone streets of Greece, where he was born and spent his childhood and youth.

Kefalides memories begin with the 1930s as social and political events shaped his attitudes and beliefs. It was also a period that set the stage for a war that would see people starve, fight and die.

As German and Italian armies invade the country, the young people of Greece are robbed of their childhood and adolescence. But Kefalides and his brother are among those who fight back, joining the resistance.

They are soon arrested and imprisoned by the Gestapo before being sent to a concentration camp in Thessaloniki. It will take all the courage they can muster and the determination of an entire nation to regain liberty.

After winning his freedom, Kefalides embarks on a new adventure, this time in America. He pursues a career in medicine and becomes a successful professor, but as the decades pass by, he can still hear Echoes from the Cobblestones.