There’s power in a “no.”

Just ask the Greeks, who celebrate the word every year, on Oxi Day, Oct. 28.

It’s a day created in honor of the Greeks’ most famous “no,” the one given to Benito Mussolini’s ambassador after he ordered Greek Prime Minister Ioannis Metaxas to let the Italian army occupy Greece.

“No!” Metaxas allegedly responded. (His actual quote was, “Alors, c’est la guerre,” meaning, “Then it’s war,” but that’s less pithy, and “No!” better captures the spirit of the thing.)

Two and a half hours after the ultimatum, Italy invaded Greece, coming over the northern border with Albania.

Oxi, or “no,” is the motto of the 8th Infantry Division of the Hellenic Army, the first Greek men to battle the Axis forces. The 8th successfully repelled the Italians, making time for the Greek reserves to mobilize.

No.

Hitler would soon come to Italy’s aid and, feeling confident, he attacked Crete in what would become a famous battle.

As the Germans parachuted onto the island in May of 1941, the outmanned and out-equipped Greeks refused to quit. Villagers grabbed cooking knives and pitchforks and attacked the Nazis as they landed. One old man clubbed a German paratrooper to death with his cane.

Though the Greeks lost, the experience humiliated Germany and delayed the invasion of Russia enough that some credit it with aiding the Allied win.

No.

When the Nazi government in occupied Greece began to deport Greek Jews, allegedly to work during the war, the archbishop of Greece, Damaskinos, protested repeatedly and publicly.

The German official in charge ordered the archbishop to stop his efforts, threatening to execute him by firing squad.

Damaskinos’ reply was that Greek clergy “are hanged, not shot” and he asked that the Nazis “please respect our traditions.” Instead of ceasing his work, the archbishop ordered Greek Orthodox churches to provide fake baptismal certificates for Jews and told Greeks to hide their Jewish neighbors in their homes.

No.

Meanwhile, the chief rabbi of Athens, Elias Barzilai, was working furiously to save the Jewish people in Athens, both the residents and refugees from other countries.

He gathered together the city’s Jewish population and told them to flee. He worked with Greek guerrillas to disperse as many Jews as he could to the mountains, and the Jewish men in their ranks joined the Greek rebels in fighting the Nazis.

When Barzilai was ordered to turn over a list of all the Jews in the area, he destroyed the records. Instead, he produced a certificate, given by the German government after an earlier break-in, saying the records had been stolen by burglars.

No.

On April 27, 1941, a man, Konstantinos Koukidis, was the Greek guard assigned to the Acropolis in Athens. When he was ordered to lower the Greek flag and install the Nazi one in its place, legend has it that the man instead wrapped the flag around himself and jumped to his death.

A month later, two teenagers, Manolis Glezos and Apostolos Santas, climbed up in the dark of night to pull down the Nazi flag.

The perpetrators, then unknown to the Germans, were sentenced to death, but the teens could not be found when no Greeks turned Glezos or Santas over. Instead, the two 19-year-olds joined the resistance and became Greek folk heroes.

No.

As stirring as they may be, these stories aren’t stories of victories.

Instead, they’re stories of pushing back.

They’re stories of obstinance in the face of evil — of deciding what is right and then refusing to be parted from it.

We honor the word “no” on Oxi Day, though more appropriately, we should cherish it always.

For there’s power in a “no,” and valor in a struggle.

May their memories be eternal.

To learn more about Georgia Garvey, visit GeorgiaGarvey.com.

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