Evening star., 1945-04-15
BY GEORGE WELLER,
War Correspondent for The Star and the
ChicaRo Daily News

AC tIldU IIlOIIlcIlL Vic ScCOIlU, 4Na1lOA, /,
whirls on the Nazi who is covering
him, smashes down his handouts on
the guards revolver, and runs for
the high wall. He is up and over its
10 feet, but his heel is caught by
volley from tommy gun. He falls
into a crowd Of Greeks waiting for
the bodies to be brought out. He
runs through the streets, the Nazis
after him. AS he slips across 4 cor
ner another NaI tommy gun catches
him, smashing his leg.
The executioners reach him. They
bind him to board and take him
back to the rife range. The Ger
man of1cer touches the cheek of
the bleeding man with his glove,
saying, II don't like to kill man
like you"
The squad fires. The body says
in death. Five minutes later 1t Is
propped up. The squad raises its
rifles, fires again. Five minutes are
counted of on the Nazi ofncer's
wrist watch. Then the board, with
its pinioned rags Of bloody flesh, is
propped up again. The rifles are
raised. Fire." And for third time,
as the code of the Reich demands,
Giorek Ivanon is executed.
Execution Completed.
Only after that third volley was
it possible for the Gestapo to write
executed" across the hundreds Of
wall bills that plastered Greece with
Ivanof1's face and the temptation:
rs 900 900 drachrhas reward"
Giorek Ivanoff was one Of Po-
lands champion swimmers. He had
taken degrees at Louvain and Sa-
lonika Universities in agricultural
engineering, and spent 10 years in
Salonika. He spoke Greek per-
fectly, as we'll as flve other lam
guages.
When British Foreign Secretary
Anthony Eden came to Greece in
1941, according to Ivanoff's Greek
chronicler, George Nasos of AS
syrmatos," he stopped for consulta-
ton with Polish general and cab
met minister In a house at 40
Rubenaki street. This house be-
longed to Ivanoff's brother n-law,
Demetn Gianatos.
Almost all who passed through its
doors fell eventually before Nazi fir
ing squads, but not before exacting
Poland's full revenge. Demetri
Gianatos, too, died thus, but his
brother, a cancer surgeon named
Constantine Gianatos, saved himself
by pretending madness, and is al
most the only survivor
Ivanoff liked to get water front
jobs from the Nazis and see what
he could do. At Navstathmos, the
Greek naval base near Salamis, ne
learned that German submarine
was being repaired. Using time
bomb attached to suction cup he
afnxed the apparatus to the subs
keel. Six hours later 1t blew up
His swimming prowess cost the
Nazis several patrol boats, too.
Served British.
Ivanof1's title in the British serv-
ice was general agent for the Bal
kans." He saw that his death
dust" was poured into many Nazi
planes. When Mussolini visited
Athens Ivanof laid plans with a
waiter at the Hotel Grande Bre-
tagne-still alive today-to have
the Duce assassinated by five men
with grenades when he came out OF
the Italian Embassy. The Italian
secret police spoiled the plan by
changing the Duce's itinerary.
Once 1vanon arranged to blow up
the Grande Bretagne when a meet
ing of 400 German aviators for the
Libya campaign was scheduled.
However, German reprisals against
hostages were at this time very
heavy and his confederates per-
suaded him to abandon the plan
after he had smuggled two drums
Of dynamite into the basement.
1vanon worked not only with the
British in Cairo, but also with the
chief of Athens police, Angeles Ev-
ert, who is still in that post. They
co-operated with another branch Of
British sabotage, the Periko-Skou-
ras group. Skouras was Thanos
Skouras, a member of the we'll
known family of American film
magnates. Skouras was caught, ar
rangements to bribe the Nazis to
let him go went astray, and he died
like Ivanoff before German rifles.
| Method Was Simple.
Ivanoff had a simple method of
getting a German uniform when-
ever he needed it. A pretty Jewess,
who worked with him, would walk
along a street frequented by Nazis,
inviting a pickup. She would take
a German onlcer to her nat. He
would be killed and stripped, and
Ivanon would don the uniform. On
one occasion, thus attired, he
reached the room Of a high German
officer in the Grande Bretagne. He
engaged the Nazi in conversation,
dropped his newspaper on the
others file OF important papers, and
when he left took away flle and all.
j Ivanon liked to improvise. He
was often accompanied by women
. and sometimes dressed as one. At
Patras, accompanied by girl pa
triot, he sauntered into a dock
where 80 drums of oil and explosives
awaited shipment. An Italian SEN
try asked him for a light. Ivanoff,
Is the Italian extended his ciga-
fette, knocked him out, took his
grenades and threw them among
the drums.
Another time, attired % q girl, he
went walking with his brother-in-
law and another girl near the
Acropolis. Two italian officers ap-
preached. Say that I am your
wife and for them to take the other