THE TRUE HERO
Jeanné McCartin

Portsmouth Herald News
July 01, 2008 6:00 AM
NH

Businessman Christos Papoutsy of Rye turned detective to find out
who really rescued the Greek refugees of Smyrna in 1922. His search
led to Methodist minister Asa Jennings.

Christos Papoutsy had heard the story of Smyrna all his life. His
father was from a nearby island in the Mytilene area of Greece. It
was there refuges of the 1922 "Great Catastrophe" were first taken
after being rescued from the shores; their backs literally pushed
against the harbor.

Nearly all Greeks know the story, he says. It’s repeated over and
over. While all but forgotten by history it remained a reason for bad
blood between some Greeks and America. It was known that the American
Navy sat by as Greeks, mostly women, children and the elderly, died
there, baking in the sun, hungry and thirsty.

The Greeks’ version of the story was that they, along with the
Armenian population of the Aegean province, Turkey, were forced by
Turks from their homes. They were also subjected to other numerous
atrocities in the process, says Papoutsy. Those who survived were
pushed to the water’s edge, were not allowed back, nor offered a way
out. Imprisonment or worse awaited them. Numerous books recounted
the event, always it was the Japanese Navy that finally came to
their rescue.

While traveling with Mary, his wife, to the region, he’d meet a few
authors of books on the subject. Conversations with them and other
things he heard led him to question details. "Things simply didn’t
add up," he says.

For a man like Papoutsy, not adding up doesn’t sit well. The disquiet
the discrepancies set off would launch a quest for the truth and 10
years later his book "Ships of Mercy: The True Story of the Rescue
of the Greeks, Smyrna, September 1922." What he discovered (with the
help of Mary, he reminds throughout the interview) is a reversal of
the long-held beliefs and a forgotten American hero.

First, a bit about the author. Papoutsy, now of Rye, was born in
Haverhill, Mass., a second-generation Greek-American. These days he’s
a semi-retired, successful business executive, once a global leader
in the electronics industry.

He’s the founder of Hellenic Communication Services, and a supporter
of numerous Greek cultural and historical organizations. The Christos
and Mary Papoutsy Charitable Foundation, founded by the pair, supports
many philanthropic endeavors, including the Professor John C. Rouman
Classical Lecture Series at the University of New Hampshire; the
Distinguished Chair in Ethics at Southern New Hampshire University
and art endeavors. The two also formed a foundation in Greece to help
the village where his father was born.

He and Mary launched the Seacoast Women’s Entrepreneurial Program
(now the Women’s Business Center).

Papoutsy works at being a man of principle. He lectures and writes
on ethical concepts and principles in business and has published
"Ethics, CSR & Sustainability." Hence, something "just not adding up"
isn’t enough.

It’s not about blaming; it’s about reasons and answers for
Papoutsy. These days he surmises that the first book on the subject
identified the Japanese as the rescuers and all those that followed
drew from it as a source. It was easy to continue the falsehood given
the lack of official Greek papers on the matter.

"No one checked to see it was true," he says. "We corroborated
our facts."

To understand how the misinformation started and continued you have to
take a look at the times, he says. "From that date (1922) till this,
Greece had many upheavals, wars, civil wars …; World War I, World War
II. Many of their records were destroyed and burned. We think that’s
part of the confusion, why it was not properly recorded in Greece."

In his own research he combed "every university, newspaper and museum
throughout Greece and found nothing."

In addition, the 1922 refuges increased Greece’s population by 25
percent. "It was a tremendous stress on the Greeks."

He corroborates his own findings with sources from throughout the
world. He found many of his facts in Naval archives, discovered
in France, Italy, England, Belgium Japan and the United States,
"to name a few."

"We weren’t looking for a particular answer. …;. We didn’t care
who had rescued them. …; We looked for the records," he says. "We
wanted the truth."

He and Mary read the ship logs and captain’s diaries; "Those records
where the captain writes what he feels, sees, smells every minute of
the day. …; There were Italians, French, American and more in the
harbor. They all cooperated."

Papoutsy also interviewed survivors. "We talked to about a dozen
survivors, now in their 90s, in good health with good memories. Then
we had diaries we found in Greek, we had translated."

One of the most interesting facts, corroborated by the Japanese
government itself, was there were no Japanese ships in that harbor in
’22 and would not be till ’27.

Eventually they stumbled on the name of Asa Jennings, a Methodist
minister, working for the Smyrna YMCA. "Someone hinted he was
involved. We went to YMCA in Turkey." It eventually led them to the
YMCA records ("which go back hundreds of years") at the archives at
the University of Minnesota.

"Lo and behold we find the Jennings (information). Then we found the
grandson and the medals the Greeks had given him, of which the Greeks
had no copies. …; They’d made him an unofficial admiral."

It was Jennings who had single-handedly orchestrated the rescue of the
people on Smyrna, Papoutsy says. Jennings had dealt with the Turkish
government, Greeks, French, English and American to put together an
acceptable plan. This man and his tireless efforts to rescue 300,000
people is the heart of Papoutsy’s book.

"To stumble across this unsung hero!" says Papoutsy. "We hope to
honor this fellow. …; He was an incredible man."

The Turks had forbidden the Greek ships in area water to re-enter
the harbor.

"Jennings made the negotiations that allowed the ships to go back
under the protection of the U.S. navy. It’s in all the captain’s
logs. . …; He is truly a forgotten hero."

The Greeks were allowed in, led and under the protection of an American
destroyer, flying American flags.

Many survivors are gone. "But there are people that want to hear the
story, want to know who saved ‘my grandfather mother, father.’"

His book will soon be published in Greek, in Greece and released in
Australia in July. He’s currently in early stage talks regarding a
documentary, which will be done in Greece. He plans to meet with the
Greek ambassador in Washington soon. There’s all that and the usual
lectures he gives on business ethics — something he can’t let go of,
he says. There’s more need for it now than ever he says.

"I’m not a historian or academic, I went after the book like a business
transaction, with due diligence, like a detective," he says. "I just
thought we should know the truth."

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