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Ships of Mercy:The True Story of the Rescue of the

Greeks, Smyrna, September 19~2.Reviewed BySophia Nibi -

Because life, and history for that matter, is personal, I have

always thought that the burning of the Mediterranean

Metropolis of Smyrna in 1922 is my mother's story.Today, 86 years later. thanks to a newly published book, Shipsof:Herey: The trlle Story f!f the Resclle if the Creeks, Smyma, September

1922 by Christos I'apoutsy, I know that the rescue of the hun-

dreds of thousands of refugees of that great catastrophe is AsaJennings' story.

Jennings was a quiet, humble American YM .CA. worker whomoved heaven and earth to secure the evacuation of thousands

of people, including, perhaps. my mother and her family. Welldocumented in the book, Christos Papout~y shows how driven

by the force of his moral convictions, Asa Jenninb'5 engineered

one of the largest rescue efforts in history.Today's Turkish city of Izmir has nothing in common with the

cosmopolitan city known as Smyrna in which my mother was

born in 1916 and where at the age of six she witnessed

unspeakable atrocities which haunted her till the day she died in

56 I Greek America Magazine I Moy . June 2008

Wellesley, MA at the age of 81.

In my lifelong search to find more about my mother's child-hood about which she would not talk because if was too

painful, I have read just about every book about the Great Fire

of 1922 during which 55,000 homes and 5,000 shops wereburned and thousands of men, women and children were gasp-

ing for life on the quay of that historic city whose magnificent

civilization spanned c;;1turies. And I have learned a lot aboutthe heroic generation of the Greeks of Asia Minor. But until

know, I never knew how they were rescued or what a significant

role an American, not just a forgotten hero, but until now alsoan unknown hero contributed to saving so many lives. Shipsof:Hereyconvincingly clarifies the role of the United States Navy,

showing how American naval otIicers horrified by the plight ofthe refugees, worked with Asa Jennings and organized the ships

in the area into a large-scale rescue operation. Vessels from the

United States, Great Britain, Ita]y and France evacuated thou-

sands from the Turkish shores. The American vessels also provid-

0h/AJzI-~

{ji! A'r[~

Postcard" and inld,Qi'S)rolll the persoNalcollectioNof Gn;Qory C. Pappas.Ti:/~~mm inwgcjrOI1l 'Ships

All hOllilwriilclI II<Jtdti')/ISal/(l captiolls 011postcardsarc ()r\Qill(11.

ed food and medical care,

and delivered supplies to the

refugee camps.Ships of does not

tell the entire story of

Smyrna and the Great Firethat destroved it. But it

tells a lot and offers

undisputed evidence of its

presentation. The book's pages contain exactly

what the Christos Papoutsy said it would when he chose the

IS-word title. Through an extensive ten-year long research by

the author and his wife. Mary. which took them to many pans

of the world interviewing descencbnrs and records, the book

otfers a compelling backed by EJcts account of the resulting con-ditions from the Great Fire of September I.t, 1922 and of the

determined role Asa Jennings played in the rescue from the mas-

sacre. The phorographs are haunting. The reproduced originalnews accounts and correspondence so telling that the readerfinds herself in the middle of the massacre and feels the

the pain. the despair. and also the hope as the ships arrive.

What Christos Papoursy has given us and history through

Ships of lYlere)':The 7rue StOY)'oj'the Re.\eliCof tile Greeks,Smyrno,September1922" is a magnificent missing piece of an epic evenr

which the world has not always treated fairly. I, a proud descen-

dant of the heroic generation of the Greeks of Asia Minor, am

grateti.Jl ro Christos Papoutsy for presenting a documented and

undisputed account \vhich I view not just as a hisrorical f~Jctbut

also as a respectfi.d tribute ro my mother and to the Greeks ofthat hisroric area who lost the counrry they loved overnight

through a catastrophe that not only should not have happened.and which should have at the very least been a lesson not to be

repeated. Sadly. as evidenced by the holocausts that followed itin other parts of the world, man's inhumanity to man remains a

condition not easy to eradicate.

Ships of ;'vIere)':The 7rue SlOr)'oj'the Reselleof tile Greeh, Smyrna,Septemli('1'1922should be on the hisrory shelves of every library.It is a book to have and read, a book to give as a gift. a book for

lovers of history to stUdy and again. Personally, I plan tovisit its pages at least once a year. on September 14. the Feast of

the Elevation of the Holy Cross. the day in 1922 when the

Great Fire destroyed a civilization. killed thousands, and alteredthe lives of hundreds of thousands who left the land of their

birth and became refugees in otl;er lands.

And on September 14, I will not only think and reflect on

my mother's life but, thanks to ChristOs Papoutsy I will also

offer a prayer of thanksgiving for the soul of one man. Asa

Jennings. who showed us how "one person can make a differ-ence. even in the most extreme circumstances. Asa Jennings

didn'tjust believe this: he lived it. We can aspire to do the

same." (Ships (~flVlercy,page 219)

Sophia IVihi, the mll1linistmtilJi' assistl1/lt ill the Greek Orthodox

A[etropolis of BostOIl, is aj;mner journalist and a .Ii'a/,mee IIlritel:

May. June 2008 IGreek America Magazine I 57