M 1. Notebook, Athena Derebey

M 1. Notebook, Athena Derebey

This work of both biography and autobiography by Athena is unique. It contains the only available description of the incident of the flag of Thyatira, or the way in which Christo was able to foil an attack of murderous intent on his Protestant church in Al Akhisar, which was filled with Greeks, Armenians and his own family, by showing the American flag he and his wife had handsewn during the night on the church's steeple. My Biography [sic] by Athena, unmarried sister of Mrs. Derebey who would always live with the family, is a handwritten account of life in Turkey and America from the 1860s to the years of World War 2. Dates are almost absent, and one can also read the harrowing account of the passage to America in steerage, where Athena and 3 Papadopoulos children were saved from deportation on Ellis Island by a truly last-minute personal intervention of President T. Roosevelt.