Pontus: A Family Account of a Mother Who Lost Her Eight Children

When they left Pontus, she had eight children.

And on the road, as she was coming, they were stopped by those bandits, the Turks.

And of the eight children…

I get emotional saying it, they take seven of the children, and my aunt says, “Please leave one child.”

And one of them gets down from his horse and takes the child, the two-year-old. The two-year— the eldest was twelve years old and the youngest was two.

And in immense pain, she returned to Greece.

In those days, you know, we wrote letters to the Red Cross, hoping they might find any of her children.

Sadly, she didn't find a single child. She died with the deepest, deepest grief that she had lost all eight of her children.

Can you tell me, were those children killed?

No, those children were Turkified. Sadly.

Perhaps they're still alive.