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President Nguyen Minh Triet pinning the Friendship Order onto the chest of Kostas Sarantidis in 2011 |
Kostas Sarantidis, named Nguyen Van Lap in Vietnamese, had an ardent life and gave valuable contributions to the revolutionary cause of Vietnam. After returning to Greece later in his life, he still turned his heart towards the S-shaped land in Southeast Asia. For him, Vietnam will always be his second homeland.
Born into a working class family in northern Greece, in 1943, he was forced to serve in Hitler’s military in Germany when he was just 16 years old. He then escaped while he was travelling through Yugoslavia and lived on trains running along the borderline between Yugoslavia and Greece.
He couldn’t return home after the end of the Second World War, as he lost all his personal papers. He was then conscripted into the French Foreign Legion and sent to Indochina in the fight against fascism and the disarmament of the Japanese troops.
Witnessing the brutal acts of the colonial regime in Cochinchina, he decided to join the Vietnamese forces in the resistance war against the French colonialists. He later wrote in his memoir that the reason he joined the Viet Minh (Vietnam Independence League) was to fight for Vietnam’s independence and freedom. The memoir reveals the extreme brutality of the French invaders in Indochina and his decision to stand by the Vietnamese people.
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Kostas Sarantidis Nguyen Van Lap (right) and General Vo Nguyen Giap (center) (Photo: idcommunism.com) |
Joining the Viet Minh with a rifle and a machine gun, he was named Nguyen Van Lap by his Vietnamese comrades. He held a number of positions and joined various battles as a member of the Vietnam People’s Army, with the highest rank of senior colonel. He was admitted to the Communist Party of Vietnam.
In 1954, after the Geneva Accords took effect, he went to the North of Vietnam and continued to make more contributions to the Vietnamese revolution. In 1958, he got married to a Vietnamese woman and had four children. In 1985, he and his family returned to Greece upon learning that his mother was still there. Though living far away from Vietnam, he still contributed to the development of the Vietnamese-Greek relationship. He actually served as a “voluntary ambassador” of Vietnam to Greece and was considered a Greek who always turned his heart towards Vietnam. With his considerable contributions to Vietnam in the resistance war against the French colonialists, Kostas Sarantidis (Nguyen Van Lap) was really a historical witness of the Vietnamese people.
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Kostas Sarantidis Nguyen Van Lap (Photo: idcommunism.com) |
On November 9, 2010, Kostas Sarantidis was granted Vietnamese citizenship. In May 2013, the State President of Vietnam conferred the title “Hero of the People’s Armed Forces” on Vietnamese citizen Kostas Sarantidis. He has gone down in the history of Vietnam as the only foreigner to receive such a noble title.
Translated by Huu Duong