LETTER TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SPECIAL STANDING COMMITTEE ON EQUALITY, YOUTH AND HUMAN RIGHTS OF THE GREEK PARLIAMENT AND ITS MEMBERS

22 November 2023

Mary Cardaras, Ph.D., Director of the Demos Centre of the American College of Greece, residing at 17 Ipitou Str., Athens, Greece, representing the movement "Nostos for Greek Adoptees".

Dear Madam President,

We are among the so-called "Lost Children of Greece" who were taken from our country and offered for adoption as babies and children to places all over the world. Many were legal adoptions, but other babies were stolen and sold, taken from their parents, even some from hospitals after birth. 

There were 4,000 of us. Most went to the United States and the Netherlands after the Second World War and the Greek Civil War but adoptions abroad continued well through the 1960s.

We are now aging adoptees who have waited our entire lives for access to our adoption records and the restoration of our Greek citizenship, which was taken from us. These are crucial to our identities, our medical histories, to finding our relatives, and to re-establishing our relationship with our homeland of which we are so proud. It is a basic human right to have these records of our first, Greek identity in our possession.

The undersigned hereby petition the Hellenic Parliament to help us connect with our true identity, because we have the human right not only to know our origins but also to establish legal bonds with the country of our birth.

Therefore, we request that a special committee be set up on the initiative of the Special Standing Committee on Equality, Youth and Human Rights and its members, including one or two independent specialists who have investigated this dark period in Greek history, Greek government officials, a human rights lawyer and a representative of the adoptees. 

We also hereby consent to the collection and investigation of our personal data for the express purpose of 1) confirming our identities, 2) gaining access to all known adoption files relating to us, and 3) having our Greek citizenship restored and our Greek passports issued.

This campaign is sponsored by the Demos Center of the American College of Greece and its Director, Mary Cardaras, Ph.D., mcardaras@acg.edu and it is undersigned by the following Greek adoptees and their supporters.

Thank you.