Not Even My Name

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Not Even My Name is the biography of Sano Halo, who survived the Greek genocide and moved to the United States of America. The book was written by Sano Halo's daughter, Thea Halo, and first published in 2000 by Picador, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers. The biography focuses on Sano Halo's experience during and immediately after the genocide. Not Even My Name was originally published in English in the US, but it has been translated into Dutch, Icelandic, and Greek.^[1]

Summary[]

Not Even My Name is the unforgettable story of Sano Halo's survival of the death march at age 10 that annihilated her family as told to her daughter, Thea, and the poignant mother/daughter pilgrimage to Turkey in search of Sano's home 70 years after her exile. Originally named Themia, a Pontic Greek from a mountain village near the Black Sea, Sano also recounts her ancient, pastoral way of life in the Pontic Mountains.

The dreadful realization that something was amiss came little by little to Sano's village. Strangers began to inhabit the fields and forests, always watching from a distance like birds of prey. Turkish soldiers made periodic raids to seize men for slave labor in foul, lice-infested labor camps, where most died of disease, malnutrition and exposure. Then in the spring of 1920, Turkish soldiers pounded on doors with the butts of their rifles and shouted General Mustafa Kemal's (Ataturk) proclamation: "You are to leave this place. You are to take with you only what you can carry " On their death march, victims lay where they fell and buzzards hung above their heads. So ended the 3,000 year history of the Pontic Greeks in Turkey.

After fleeing the soldiers, Themia's family was destitute. Themia's mother searched for food for the remaining family members. When they came upon a small hamlet, Themia's mother gave Themia to a family who promised to take care of her. But they treated her as a slave and changed her name to Sano. Stripped of everything she had ever held dear, even her name, at age 15 Sano was given in marriage to Abraham, a 45 year old Assyrian who brought her to America.

Not Even My Name follows Sano's marriage, the raising of her ten children, and her transformation from an innocent girl who lived an ancient way of life in a remote place, to a nurturing mother and determined woman in twentieth-century New York City.

Although Turkey actively suppresses the truth about the slaughter of almost 3 million of its Christian minorities - Greek, Armenian, and Assyrian - during and after World War I, and the exile of millions of others, here is a rare, firsthand account of the horrors of that genocide. But Sano's story is also one of triumph; a brilliant and mesmerizing memoir written in haunting and eloquent prose, Not Even My Name weaves a seamless texture of individual memory that evokes all the suspense and drama of the best told tales

Reception and Reviews[]

Sano Halo was invited to speak about her experiences at Astoria's Stathakion Cultural Center in 2000. Thea Halo has given many lectures and readings in the US and abroad since publication of Not Even My Name. It became an instant best seller in Greece when it was translated into Greek.

THE NEW YORK TIMES "A story of personal strength and the great triumph of mere survival" Chris Hedges, A Few Words in Greek Tell of a Homeland Lost. New York Times. September 17, 2000

WASHINGTON POST BOOK WORLD "Deeply moving... it is impossible to read the story of this woman's life without marveling at the strength of her spirit."

SALEM PRESS "...a triumphant narrative of exceptional magnitude. As an historian, daughter, writer of vivid and arresting prose, and standard bearer of truth, Thea Halo has thus given an invaluable gift to the world."

US NEWS & WORLD REPORT - TOP PICK A survivor's tale from Turkish death marches in 1920 that killed thousands of ethnic Greeks. Young Themia lost family, freedom, even her name - changed to Sano by her cruel mistress. Her daughter tells the sad story with simple grace.

PUBLISHER'S WEEKLY - STARRED REVIEW "The harrowing story of the slaughter of two million Pontic Greeks and Armenians in Turkey after WWI comes to vivid life" in this memoir by the daughter of a survivor, who has written "an eloquent and powerful account of this tragic chapter in Turkish history."

LIBRARY JOURNAL - STARRED REVIEW The Armenian genocide in Turkey during World War I is widely known. Almost unknown, however, is the annihilation of the Pontic Greeks, who had lived for 3000 years in the Pontic Mountains near the Black Sea, by Kemal Ataturk’s military forces after the war. In 1921, one survivor, ten-year-old Sano Halo (the author’s mother), was forced with her entire village on a nearly year-long death march to Syria. …Sano’s is truly an amazing story of survival and resilience … Even more remarkable is the lack of rancor, which so often permeates survivors’ memoirs. … An important and revealing book; highly recommended for all libraries. —Ruth K. Baacke,

BOOKLIST - STARRED REVIEW "An unforgettable book" - Hazel Rochman. Booklist also recommends for teens: YA: The child refugee story, the mother-daughter bond, the teenage arranged marriage, will grab teens' interest --HR

PETER BALAKIAN, author of Black Dog of Fate — In telling her mother's epic story of survival and ultimate triumph in America, Thea Halo has written an important book about a largely unknown history: the genocide of the Pontic Greeks at the hands of the Turkish government in the years following World War I. Halo's deeply moving portrait of her mother reverberates with large moral issues that affect us all.

NICHOLAS GAGE, author of Eleni — As written by her daughter Thea, Sano Halo's harrowing account of the destruction of her family and her world is told with such vivid detail that every page sears the mind and the heart. Not Even My Name is a work of burning intensity, self evidently powerful and true.

During WWI, thousands of Armenians and Anatolian Greeks fled Turkey, landing in northern Syria. The Red Cross fed these refugees; many were homeless and poor, forced to shelter in caves. Sano Halo traveled through Syria with these thousands of others. Before the publication of her story, it wasn't well known that Pontians sought asylum in Syria.^[2]

Pontian organizations and Greek-diaspora news sources nicknamed Sano Halo "Grandmother of the Pontian Greeks."^[3] Sano Halo became a public figure after Macmillan released Not Even My Name, and multiple news sources reported on her death in 2014.^[3][1] Sano and Thea received honorary Greek citizenship after the book's publication.^[4]

References[]

Explanatory notes[]

See also[]

• Greek genocide
• Pontic Greeks
• Dissolution of the Ottoman Empire
• Turkish War of Independence
• On the Quai at Smyrna
• Number 31328