Josef H. Blechinger was a German soldier who turned out to be one of the greatest heroes of the Greek resistance, who literally saved a town from destruction.
Blechinger came to Greece as a conqueror with the German army. A few years later, after the war, he became Greek, changed his name to Elias Kokkinos, started a family and died in Greece.
Elias Kokkinos was born as Josef H. Blechinger in Dresden. His mother was Czechoslovakian and his father Austrian, but officially he was a German citizen. When World War II broke out, he had to enlist in the German army. First he served in occupied Poland. Then he was transferred to Greece.
Greece was under German occupation and Blechinger was appointed as switchman officer in the Lamia railway station. Blechinger was not a Nazi and soon he started helping Lamia residents who were wrongly suffering under Nazi rule during the occupation.
