The story of the 2025 Gabby Awards is entitled “Goddesses in our Midst,” during which we will recognize and honor the extraordinary lives of 20 contemporary goddesses from throughout North America. During the program, with film, song and theatrical elements, we will also pay tribute to a series of dynamic women who each in her own way, left her mark on the world.
Lela Karagianni wasn’t born into heroism, but rather into the quiet rhythm of domestic life. A wife, a mother of seven, and the daughter of a pharmacist, she lived a life of purpose but not of fame. That would change with the Axis invasion of Greece in 1941, when the country’s soul—its very survival—was placed under siege.
Born Eleni Minopoulou in 1898 in the small town of Limni on the island of Euboea, Lela grew up with the stories of resistance in her blood. Her great-grandmother was Laskarina Bouboulina, the legendary naval commander of the Greek War of Independence, and her own destiny would soon mirror that same unshakable spirit.
When the Nazis occupied Athens, Lela could not look away. What began as quiet discontent quickly turned into direct action. Alongside her husband Nikolaos, a pharmacist in central Athens, she transformed the back room of their pharmacy into a hub of anti-Nazi activity. There, and later from a monastery in Megara, she created one of Greece’s most important resistance cells. She called it “Bouboulina,” in honor of the ancestor who had blazed a similar path a century earlier.
Lela’s work was more than symbolic. Her network provided forged documents, arranged escapes for Allied soldiers and Jewish families, and passed intelligence to the British. She operated under constant threat, but her courage never faltered. With seven children at home, her risks were not abstract—yet she pressed forward, believing that freedom for the many was worth sacrificing the safety of the few.
By 1944, the Nazis had grown increasingly brutal in their efforts to crush resistance. Lela was eventually arrested and taken to the Gestapo headquarters on Merlin Street, a place known in occupied Athens simply as “Hell House.” There, she was tortured, interrogated, and beaten, but she never gave up the names of her comrades.
She was transferred to Haidari, a notorious concentration camp outside Athens, where she spent the final weeks of her life. Even behind bars, she remained a symbol of strength and defiance. Fellow prisoners recalled how she lifted their spirits with prayer, song, and quiet determination, refusing to allow the brutality around her to extinguish her resolve.
On September 8, 1944, just weeks before Athens was liberated, Lela Karagianni was executed by a Nazi firing squad. She died as she lived—unafraid and unyielding. Her final act was one of dignity and defiance, a farewell not only to her family and homeland, but to the world she believed could be better.
In the years that followed, her name became synonymous with courage. She was posthumously honored by the Greek state and recognized internationally for her efforts to protect the lives of others during the darkest period of modern Greek history. Her home in Athens still stands as a historic site, and her memory lives on in the streets that bear her name and the stories passed down to each new generation.
Lela Karagianni’s legacy is not one of wartime alone. It is the story of what happens when ordinary people refuse to stay silent. She did not seek the spotlight. She did not ask for recognition. But through her actions, she gave a nation a symbol of moral clarity and unshakable resistance.
She reminds us that heroism can come from the most unexpected places—a mother’s kitchen, a corner pharmacy, a hidden room filled with whispers and courage. In a world that needed heroes, Lela Karagianni chose to become one. Not by chance. By choice. And with love for her people burning at the core of her every decision.
For more information, visit https://greekamerica.org/gabbyawards2025.