Crucified

Naousa is an important textile town, 90 miles west of Salonika, whose prewar population of 12,000 had been more than doubled by refugees. Last week TIME Correspondent Robert Low, going into Naousa with a government relief column, found the people--those who remained--numbly picking their way through' rubble and wreckage, as though dazed by some cataclysm of nature. There had been a cataclysm, but it was manmade. The Communist guerrillas had taught the townspeople, as they had taught many other Greeks elsewhere, not to be friendly with the Athens government, and especially not with Americans.

Down from the Mountains. Last fortnight Naousa was gay and proud. The town's civic center, decked with Greek and U.S. flags, was renamed Truman Square. General James A. Van Fleet was on hand for the ceremonies. The town's young mayor, Nikolas Theophilou, thanked him for U.S. aid; the general praised Naousa's garrison for bravery against the enemy.

In the snowy Vermion Mountains a few miles away, the Markos guerrillas heard of the festival. Through the passes mule trains began to move, some carrying ammunition and food, others empty and ready for loot. Supported by heavy machine guns, bazookas and mortars, 3,000 rebels attacked in foggy darkness. Before morning Naousa was in Communist hands.

In the first daylight, young Mayor Theophilou was seized at home, dragged and kicked through the streets to Truman Square, backed up against a white marble monument. Said a rebel capitanos: "You've had a lot of experience lately making speeches to your American friends. Why not make one for us?" Theophilou straightened and started to answer: "I am mayor of this town and--" A spatter of bullets from rebel Tommy guns cut him off. For three days his body stayed there, propped against the bloodstained marble. Thus the lesson began.

Not Much Milk. For execution as "friends of Americans," Communist spies picked out government officials, civil servants, factory managers and foremen, shopkeepers. In all, some 75 civilians were shot, clubbed or burned to death. Many people hid by standing up to their necks in the icy streams over which their houses were built.

Every shop in Naousa was plundered, even the barbershops, from which razors and hair tonic were carried away. The two-story hospital was blown up with land mines. Nine factories were destroyed, including a textile mill which employed 1,000, the biggest in the Balkans. When a workman asked why the means of livelihood of innocent people should be thus snatched away, a rebel answered: "How else are we going to get you people to come to the hills with us?"

After three days, hearing that government relief columns were on the way, the Communists prepared to leave. They picked out 700 townspeople to go with them as captives. One girl tearfully protested: "Capitanos, I am pregnant. What use can I be to you?" The guerrilla leader strolled up to her and ripped open the bodice of her dress. He laughed and said: "Not much milk for a woman who claims to be with child." To his men he said: "Take her with the others. She should know better than to try to lie to us."

Brandy for the Dead. When government forces finally reached Naousa, they found funeral services in progress at the cemetery. The resonant chanting of priests was intermittently drowned out by the wailing of black-shawled women. Some of the dead, laid out in open clapboard coffins, had ears hacked off, eyes gouged out. In the ruined hospital, strewn among wrecked operating tables and X-ray machines, were blood-soaked and bullet-riddled mattresses--proof that the sick and wounded had been shot in bed.

A tiny old woman in black, her eyes glazed with grief, accosted Correspondent Low. She was carrying a bottle of raw, homemade brandy, and a glass. She poured the glass brimfull and handed it to Low. "Ghia tin psychi ton makariti! (Here's to the souls of the dead),".she said. Another woman, younger but grey-haired, shouted hysterically: "You Americans must put an end to this war--or leave us to the Russians. Between you we are being crucified!"

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